


Adrift

by White_Wolf998



Category: Siren (TV 2018)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst with a Happy Ending, Ben finally gets to have some character growth instead of another stupid addiction plot, But also for the Polymarine fandom, Character Development, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Domestic Fluff, Dont copy to another site, F/F, F/M, Humor, Introspection, It'll all make sense I promise, Just Bear With Me, MAJOR FIX-IT FOR SEASON 3!, Meanwhile Maddie and Ryn prove that they are the undisputed Queens of Land and Sea, More than just Mermaids, Mythology - Freeform, Post Season 3, Supernatural Elements, Underwater Worlds, Wilderness Survival, but we already knew that, i'm doing this for fun, occasional smut, world building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:26:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 61,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24666088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/White_Wolf998/pseuds/White_Wolf998
Summary: Ben is lost (in more ways than one) and must confront his own demons before he can find his way back to Maddie and Ryn. But the journey home may force him to create new ones in order to survive the many dangers that he must face along the way.Maddie has managed to find some peace and stability with Ryn after having to deal with so much loss and chaos in her life. But a mysterious visitor from her past may be the harbinger of new threats that will lead to Maddie realizing just how important and powerful she truly is in the fabric of destiny.Ryn is willing to stay on land forever with Maddie, but she now has more responsibilities than she could ever have imagined as both a mother and a leader for her people that keeps bringing her back to the water where she encounters new threats that are emerging from the darkest deeps of the ocean.
Relationships: Maddie Bishop/Ben Pownall/Ryn
Comments: 32
Kudos: 26





	1. Move

**Author's Note:**

> This is my very first fic so please be gentle with me. I'm doing this cause Season 3 was a major disappointment and this fandom deserves better. Constructive criticism is very much welcome (especially from more experienced writers) but hate and trolling isn't so don't even think about it.
> 
> Enjoy!

The first sensation he experienced was the sound of waves crashing on a shore. The second, was the feel of those waves washing over him as he lay on a beach of coarse sand and small rocks. The third sensation was the taste of it and some instinctive part of his brain told him it was saltwater ( _What's saltwater?_ ).

The fourth, was pain. 

Pain in his body like he'd been beaten to within an inch of his life. Pain in his sides as he struggled to breathe (which only brought more pain). Pain in his hands that made it feel as if his skin was being peeled away and his muscles were tearing. But the worst pain was the pain in his mind. His head felt as if someone had driven a spike through it. It was so pervasive throughout the entirety of his being that he was afraid it would consume him like fire until there was nothing left but ashes.

When another wave washed over him, bringing with it a new surge of pain in his sides and hands, instinct told him he had to move. If he didn't move up the beach, away from the water, he knew he'd just get stuck in a never ending cycle of agony that would probably wind up killing him. And in some tiny part of his mind, the thought of dying in such a pathetic, pitiful way--only a few feet from safety--sounded extremely humiliating. That proud part of his mind told him that this was something he could easily save himself from and that his death should have more meaning than this. He didn’t know why he felt that way; he just did. But the second he tried to get up to move away from the water, the pain in his body took over again and he just flopped back down onto the sand.

He felt yet another wave of water wash over him; bringing with it another wave of pain. The saltwater flowed into his mouth and nostrils and then down into his airways. He coughed and sputtered, trying to get the salty liquid out so he could breathe more easily. But strangely enough, the water also made breathing a little easier. As it moved down his throat, he felt a sense of relief flow through him and he was finally able to catch his breath for a second. He felt a weird tickling sensation along his sides, at his ribs, and the image of flowing water flashed through his mind. It didn't hurt but it honestly didn't feel right either. Now he didn’t know whether or not he should move forward up the beach, or back down towards the water. 

He lay there listening to the sounds around him; it was the only thing he could do that didn’t hurt. He heard the sound of the wind blowing, of high-pitched caws above him, and weird deep-sounding barking noises off in the distance. The last two rang a bell of familiarity in his mind ( _I know those sounds. How do I know them?_ ). And of course there was the sound of water. The sound of the waves relentlessly crashing on the shore never stopped and seemed to come from everywhere. He found that it had a soothing effect on him. It lulled him into a sense of tranquility, in spite of the pain that came whenever a new one washed over him.

Curiously, the sound of the waves brought to mind another sound, one that began to work its way up from the depths of his subconscious. A sound that put him completely at ease and left him feeling like he was floating on air (or in water). If anything it was more soothing than the sound of the waves and knew, without a doubt, that it was the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard.

_Oooooohooooooo…….HooooooOoooooo….....Ooooooooooohoooooo…...hooooOoooooo……_

The sound, or rather the Song (because he felt that that was a better descriptor for it), didn’t appear to come from any exterior source that he could tell. He sensed that it was fully in his mind and yet he could hear it clear as day, as if someone was right there next to him singing it. Suddenly, images began flashing through his mind rapidly as the Song played out. None of them really helped him to make any sense of his current situation and he couldn't explain why he thought of them. They just came with the Song.

Some of them involved him swimming deep underwater, or him looking out at the ocean from the shore with sadness in his heart. In those images, he could register the presence of another standing beside him who was also watching the water. He could sense that they were sad too--and for the same reason that he was--although he couldn't see their face very clearly because his focus was mostly on the water. The impression he got from that image was that the two of them were losing something precious. Even though he couldn't see their face, he could sense her ( _her?_ ) taking comfort in his presence and him taking comfort in her's as they looked out at the ocean together. There was a strong bond there between them that he could sense, one that made him feel happy and complete inside when he thought about it. 

Most of the other images he saw, however, were of a woman. A stunningly beautiful woman with alabaster skin and long dark hair that flowed past her shoulders. She had a heart shaped face with prominent cheekbones and bright blue eyes. The thought of her gave him a warm feeling in his heart, although he didn’t know why. But there was also something….strange, about her. Something that drew him in but also put him on edge.

Physically, she looked normal, but there was a quality she possessed that distinctly wasn’t. Like the warmth he felt for her earlier, he couldn’t explain why or how he knew this, he just did. As the images continued to play out in his brain, they began to blur together until the Song, the woman, and the ocean were all wrapped up together in his head, becoming one and the same. That thought made a great deal of sense to him but why it did, he couldn’t tell. These blanks in his mind were starting to get very frustrating. It felt as if something inside of him was missing, something very important. But it hurt too much to try and figure out what that was, so he just went back to listening to the Song and the peaceful sound of the waves.

_Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Just let the water take me away. All the pain will be gone then._

Before he could allow himself to give into that hopeless thought, another one began to work its way into his mind. Stronger and sterner than the one that told him to give up. A voice that wasn’t swayed by the Song, or the pain, or the woman, or the ocean. When it spoke to him, it sounded angry with him for some reason. Angry but also sad and disappointed, as if it expected better from him. The voice told him only one thing:  
_Move_

Now it was his turn to get angry. He tried that already, thank you very much, and it didn’t work. The voice should have known that already and he told it so:

_I can't_

_Move_

_You move_

_Move!_

_It hurts!_

_MOVE!_

_FINE!_

Finally, he obeyed the strong voice and began to move. He knew that there was no way in Hell ( _what's Hell?_ ) that he would be able to walk so he tried crawling. It wasn't any easier than walking, but at least the land was supporting him. He started by extending one of his arms out in front of him, ignoring the sensation of his muscles feeling like they were being shredded into little pieces, and dug his fingers into the coarse dark sand.

_Move_

He pulled himself forward, digging his feet into the ground to provide a supportive push. He reached up with his other hand and grabbed hold of some rocks and used them as his next handhold. He only moved a few inches at a time, but his body was still screaming in agony. Or maybe that was him screaming. His grasp on reality was slipping very quickly. Red and black spots danced across his vision and now all he could hear was a high pitched ringing sound. His entire world was narrowing down to two sensations: Pain and _Move_. Not much else mattered besides that. Anytime he thought about stopping, about giving up, the strong voice was there to encourage him onward.

_Move_

He doesn’t know how long he has been crawling up the beach. It could have been a few minutes or a few hours for all he knew; it didn’t matter. It all felt like an eternity. But eventually the waves were no longer covering him, the sound of them hitting the shore grew softer behind him, and was soon replaced by a new sound that got stronger and clearer the more he moved forward.

_Move_

He’s not sure what it is. It’s a faint rustling sound, and he’s not entirely certain if it’s a safe one. But he’s been told to move so he will move, inching his way closer and closer to the rustling sound. By some miracle he’s able to find the strength to lift his head up enough to look in front of him. His eyes hurt, encrusted with sand and salt, his vision is weak and blurry, but he can make out the faint image of a huge wall of green ( _What is green?_ ). He could just make out shapes moving and shifting within the wall, swaying, and different shades of darker colors between the green.

_Move_

All the while that he is crawling along on his belly, the sound of the ocean behind him keeps pounding into his brain. Part of him tells him that it is the reason that he is in pain. Another says that it will be what washes the pain away. The sudden burning in his hands and sides as he moved farther away from it certainly convinces him of that. Whether by death or by some other means he doesn’t know and honestly, he doesn’t care. He just wants it all to end. But he doesn't listen to that thought. He just keeps moving forward.

_Move_

The other sound, the beautiful one, the Song that seemed to come from both within his mind and from the ocean itself kept playing on repeat in his brain. Constant. Endless. The pain in his mind seemed to retreat from the Song as it spread through every little nook and crevice of his brain. That soothed him and scared him all at once.

The former because, when he stopped to focus on the Song, it made him feel completely at peace. Nothing hurt anymore. But he also felt the latter because something told him, reminded him, that while the Song may make him feel at peace, it was dangerous and he shouldn’t listen to it. It sounded suspiciously like the strong voice. It told him that the peaceful feeling the Song brought was the result of the rest of his mind being taken away. Definitely not a good thing. That other part of his mind told him not to worry about the Song because he had something far more important to worry about.

_Move_

Yeah, that was definitely the strong voice. He was starting to hate the strong voice. But he listened to it nonetheless because he knew deep inside himself that the strong voice was right. To listen to the Song was dangerous. To listen to the Song was madness. To listen to the Song was death. Some deep instinct inside him that he couldn't quite find the name for, told him that part of the reason he got himself into the mess he was in now is because he didn’t listen to the strong voice before. The implications of that thought immediately filled him with shame.

The strong voice was strong for a reason and he clearly hadn’t listened to it. If he hadn’t listened to it, that must've meant he had listened to another voice. One that was weak; he had been weak. He had been weak and he had listened to the Song and now he was here: alone in a strange place and crawling on his belly because he was in too much pain to walk. What did that say about the kind of person he was? What kind of person was he? He didn’t know and he couldn’t remember. ( _He couldn’t remember? Why couldn’t he remember!?_ ) He pushed that thought aside and focused on what was important. What the strong voice told him to do. The only thing that mattered the entire world:

_Move_

But now he had an idea of why the strong voice was angry and disappointed in him. Why it expected better. It was his voice. He hadn't heard his own voice since he'd woken up, but he just knew that it was his. He was angry and disappointed in himself for some reason, but when he tried to remember why he just drew another blank.

_Move_

Eventually, he could take no more. No matter how hard he tried, his body just couldn’t find the strength to fight through the pain to move another inch. It wasn't a matter of strength or willpower anymore, but of simple exhaustion. The strong voice can yell and scream at him all it likes, he will move no further.

He stops and lays down on the sand (or more accurately he flops down) and presses his face into the coarse grains and sharp rocks. To him they are as soft as silk ( _What's silk?_ ). He can feel the first tendrils of exhaustion pulling at his mind and body and he knows that he’s about to pass out. He hopes that he’ll wake up again. Before he drifts off, he hears the strong voice one last time--only this time it has something different to say to him:

_As long as you have a breath in you, you fight. No matter what, you keep fighting. Keep breathing. Find your way home._

It still sounded like the same voice from before. His voice. His stronger self. But it also sounded like another voice; a gentler, sweeter, one that was no less strong as iron. A voice he trusted without question. He knew that voice and who it belonged to without knowing how or why. It didn’t belong to the blue-eyed woman but the other one. The one who stood by his side and by whose side he had stood as they comforted and supported each other while they both gave a part of their heart to the ocean. The thought of her filled his heart with warmth the same as the blue-eyed woman. He tried to picture her face but his brain was just too tired right now; all he could muster up was an impression in his thoughts of what he wanted to call a smile. A radiant, beautiful, smile that shone brighter than the sun. Much to his dismay, that was all he could muster up, so he went back to focusing on what the strong voice(s) were telling him:

_Breathe…..Breathe…..Breathe....._

So that’s just what he does. He breathes in and out, in and out,…..in…...out…..in…....out letting himself drift off into what he hoped would be a peaceful, dreamless sleep. Well, hopefully not too dreamless. He very much wanted to dream about those two women who had entered into his mind earlier. They were, without a doubt, the only unquestionably good thing about his day. He hoped that he might remember them better in his dreams. He hoped he could finally see the face that belonged to that glorious smile.

The pain in his body is starting to fade away just a little with each breath. And the Song had begun to fade away as well, removing itself from his concerns for the moment. The last coherent thought he has before the darkness consumed him is one that probably would have concerned him greatly if he wasn’t so exhausted. It explained all the blanks that were being drawn in his brain when he thought about things. Why he knew things but not how he knew them.

He couldn’t remember anything. Nothing about himself. About his life. Or about how he came to be where he was.

He couldn’t even remember his own name.


	2. A Single Step

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben's journey begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, Chapter 2. Much sooner than even I expected. Next up is Maddie's first POV chapter!

He awoke briefly from his dreamless slumber to the sensation of pulling. ( _Pulling?_ ) He could feel his lower half being elevated off the ground and a pressure wrapped completely around both his ankles. Then it clicked. He was being dragged! Something had him by his ankles and was dragging his body along the ground! He opened his eyes to see where he was and what was dragging him. Above him he could see that he was beneath some kind of canopy that shielded him from the sun. Now he understood what the wall of green he had seen earlier was.

_Trees! I'm being dragged through a forest! Wait! What are trees? What's a forest? Where am I!?_

Before he could stir himself to action to free himself and confront whatever was dragging him, his head bounced on a small rock that was in the middle of the path he was being dragged on.

_Ow._

That was the last coherent thought he had as he drifted off, back into unconsciousness.

This time, however, he dreamed.

He dreamed that he was standing in a sunlit grove of some kind, surrounded by shrubs and trees and bushes. Flowers bloomed everywhere around him like it was the beginning of spring; he could smell their sweet fragrance in the air when he inhaled. He could hear the sounds of birds calling to one another in the trees. Butterflies and bees could be seen flitting about from flower to flower, seeking out the sweet nectar and in doing so inadvertently pollinated said flowers, ensuring a future supply of nectar by helping to sire the next generation. He could hear the sound of running water nearby and out of sight; maybe a small brook or stream. Above him the sky was a bright radiant blue full of wisps of pale clouds. When he focused on the sky more closely, he could see stars. So many stars, twinkling above him in the daylight, like shining diamonds. He was suddenly overcome with emotion. Everything around him was all just so beautiful.

But more than the beauty of the scene around him, he could sense something else. The air was practically humming with energy. Vibrant and buzzing and luminous, he could feel the eb and flow of it in everything around him. The plants, the animals, even the soil and water itself. He could feel all of it in his mind and in his soul. And he was a part of it. Everything around him was in harmony and in balance, including himself.

For a moment he just savored the tranquility around him. Eventually though, he could sense that he wasn’t alone. He felt a presence behind him and turned around to face it. It was a woman. Not the woman who he had seen in his Song-visions earlier, or the one whose presence he’d felt but whose face he still had not yet seen. He was quite certain that he’d never met this woman at any point in his life (although to be fair he couldn’t remember his life). And yet she also seemed familiar to him, like he did know her in some way. 

“Who are you?”, he asked her.

“Hmph! Isn't it obvious!? I’m your Mother!”, she told him in a voice that sounded as if she was shocked that he even needed to ask such a question.

He could only raise an eyebrow at that statement. He couldn’t see his own face to tell if there was a physical resemblance, but one look at her appearance told him that the possibility of them being related was highly unlikely. She was short and squat--the top of her head would probably have barely reached his ribs. She wore a very ugly and unfashionable looking dress that looked as if it had once been all red, but was now stained and patched in places with pieces of different colored cloth. Her skin was a light grey color and covered with wrinkles. It reminded him of rock--cracked, well worn rock. Her hair was a tangled mane of wiry grey hair that was full of moss and twigs. Her face looked misshapen, as if someone had molded it from clay without knowing what a face was actually supposed to look like. She had a big lump of a nose that looked as if it had been squashed in, no discernable chin that he could see--her face jutting out in a kind of muzzle, and a thin mouth like a straight line drawn across the bottom of her face with what appeared to be a wispy gray mustache across her top lip. She had a prominent brow ridge with bushy gray eyebrows that overshadowed a pair of deep set eyes. Eyes that were pale blue like the sky above them. If she was his mother, then he must be adopted.

She seemed to notice his uncertainty and smiled at him. Or at least he thought it was a smile. It looked more like a grimace. But he could sense her amusement. Clearly she thought his confusion was funny. Suddenly her form shifted: she suddenly became taller and thinner, her skin lightened and her hair darkened. The only thing that didn’t change were her eyes, which remained blue. The woman’s face now seemed much more familiar to him in some distant part of his mind, but he wasn’t entirely sure he recognized her.

_Is this my mother?_

The woman then shifted forms again. Now her skin took on a more olive complexion and her eyes went from blue to brown, her hair long and curly and streaked with grey. She had a gleam of mischief and wisdom in her eye that told him she had a sharp wit and a deep intelligence. Her face was familiar too but he felt less certain about calling her his mother than he did the previous woman. Finally, she shifted back to her original form.

“I am Mother to many, many children", she explained, "When they look at me, they see many faces. Especially here, in the world of dreams. This face I wear now is one that I wear in the waking world.”

That wasn't much of an answer to be honest. It didn't explain who she really was. Although to be honest, that wasn't his most pressing concern at the moment.

“Why are you here? Where are we? And why can’t I remember anything?”

The look on her face then shifted to one of sadness and regret. Clearly she had the answers that he wanted to know but she didn't want to tell him. He sensed that he wasn't going to like what he heard.

“Where we are is not important. It's simply a nice place for us to meet and talk. And it is, isn’t it!? So pretty and peaceful. But I’m afraid that the reason for my presence here is not to share in this peaceful moment. No, no, sweet boy. I’m afraid that I am here to share important knowledge with you. But important doesn’t always mean good or happy, I’m afraid. No, no it doesn't. This, you will soon come to know.”

“I’m assuming that this knowledge will explain why I can’t remember anything?”, he asked her.

“It does. And more...”, she hesitated briefly, clearly measuring her words and thinking carefully about what she was going to tell him next. Finally she spoke.

“Know this and remember it; you are not a bad person. You’re a good man, with a good heart--full of love and compassion. But events have taken place in your life that have set you on a dangerous path. A path that might have one day turned that love evil, and the compassion into selfishness. It is a path that you were forced onto but also one that, in many ways, you have chosen to walk yourself. Your loss of memory is a consequence of this.”

“What did I do?”

“That is not for me to tell you, but for you to remember on your own. In time your memory may return and with it will come understanding and clarity. But what is most important is that--when it does--you reflect on the mistakes you’ve made and learn from them. In doing so, _you_ will make the choice to walk a different path yourself, which is what is most important. Yes, yes, yes. The greatest change always comes from within.”

“How am I supposed to learn from my mistakes if I can’t remember them!? You said I’ve chosen this path, but you also said I was forced onto it. Which is it!? Is it my fault or isn’t it!?” he couldn't help but get a little frustrated by the old woman's demands of him without providing the slightest explanation. And her eccentric way of speaking didn't exactly fill him with confidence either.

Suddenly “Mother” whacked him on the head with a tall walking stick that he didn’t notice her having earlier. It wasn't a hard knock, but it definitely stunned him.

"OW!", he cried out, indignant and rubbing his head on the spot where she hit him.

" _Don't you raise your voice to me boy!_ Hmph! Believe it or not, I'm trying to help you! Didn’t anyone ever teach you not to get snippy when people are trying to help you!? Hmph! Now, close your mouth and open your ears so I can finish explaining!"

Admonished, he stood silently, rubbing the growing bump on his head.

"I'm sorry", he apologized softly. "I'm just….. I don't know what's happened to me and I’m really scared right now."

She nodded her head sagely at him, a look of sympathy and sadness in her eyes.

"Hmm. I understand my child, believe me I do. But you cannot allow fear to consume you. That's part of the reason why you are here in this mess."

She continued on, "To answer your earlier question, on whether or not you chose your current path, I will tell you this: at first, you did not choose it. Something happened to you. Something that was outside of your control and at the time when it took place, you were completely unaware of the danger it would later bring. 

"And even after you became aware of the danger, there was honestly little you could do to overcome it. It was something far, far, more powerful than you. You fought it when you could, but more often than not, you succumbed to it. There are some forces in this world that human minds simply have no adequate defense against. They worm their way into the smallest corners of the mind and exploit every weakness, every flaw, and every shortcoming you have and make them worse until they overtake you. And this thing, this force, which has robbed you of your memory is one of them."

He wanted to ask her what it was but he realized that she probably wasn't going to tell him, and the lump on his head reminded him not to interrupt her. She had told him that that was something for him to remember on his own. But he had a feeling he knew what it was that had happened. He'd heard it earlier. The Song.

"But in time other events took place where the choice was definitely, firmly, put in your hands and…..", she hesitated.

"I made the wrong one," he finished for her, immediately knowing what she was going to say. He didn’t try to hide from what he knew to be the truth.

She nodded her head solemnly, clearly unhappy with having to confront him about this. Not unlike a mother reluctantly having to tell her child that he did something wrong for fear of hurting his feelings, but knew that she must do so, so that he could learn from it.

"What you did, you did out of love, and with a desire to help those you held dear to your heart. But you were reckless and what you did was dangerous. It corrupted you in ways you could not even begin to imagine. At first, the only person who was in the greatest danger of your mistakes was you yourself. But the circumstances of your life and your own reckless behavior meant that it could have been the beginning of much more and much worse. Bah", she shook her head in frustration and concern, "A dangerous path that might have seen you and all you hold dear suffer as a result."

He didn't need his memories to know that that was the last thing he would ever want to do. The names and faces were all blanks in his mind, but he knew that there were people in his life who he loved dearly, and the thought of losing them or of them being hurt--by his own hand no less--immediately filled his heart with dread.

“Your loss of memory is the result of what happened to you, and in time it may return with the right help and healing. But unfortunately, it has left you in a very precarious position. Right now, you are effectively a blank canvas. Anything could happen! Yes, there are any number of paths that you could choose or have chosen for you! And all the instincts you had that got you into trouble before are still there. Only this time, without any memory to guide you, you’re likely to make even greater mistakes out of simple ignorance. And the good person inside of you might be lost forever. 

"But a lost memory doesn’t necessarily change the fundamental quality of who you are as a person. The good or the bad. So there is also a high probability that you might turn out even better than you were before. With the right help of course, and that is why I am here!"

He couldn’t help himself, he had to ask. The fear and the uncertainty from her words and his lost memory was starting to well up inside him.

“ _What did I do?_ ”, he whispered softly in a frightened voice, wanting to know the truth but also secretly not wanting to hear the answer out of fear of what she might say.

She didn’t give it to him. He wasn't surprised about that. And he wasn’t sure if he was glad or frustrated by her refusal to give him an answer.

“I told you, you are not evil. But you have a passionate and impulsive personality that has gotten the better of you quite often, and the events of your life have only made it worse. And for what you are destined to become, that simply will not do. No it will not do at all!", she said emphatically, shaking her head. She did that a lot. 

"You must learn to stop, to stand still, to listen, learn, and observe before taking action. You can’t just keep diving head first into deep water ya big lug! Hmph! There is a time for that but there is also a time where you must wade in slowly and that is what I will help you learn to do.”

“You don’t trust me to do that on my own?” he asked, his pride a little wounded at the implication.

“It isn’t a matter of trust my dear. Had we the time, I would do nothing. I would restore your memories and heal your mind in a heartbeat, send you home, and leave you be--to learn and grow and get better in your own time. But a storm is coming and I need you to be ready for it when it comes. That doesn’t just include self-improvement but training as well. I need you to be strong and sturdy in mind, body and spirit and ready to fight when the storm hits, not moping about and dwelling on your character flaws. 

“So go ahead and just call this a quick kick in the ass that’ll kill two birds with one stone and save us some time in the process. Don’t worry, you’re gonna have a few years of breathing room to work in, but try not to dawdle too much. Time is of the essence. And don’t hesitate to accept help when you can find it! Too many have fallen from grace all because they were too stubborn to simply ask for help. They all believe that they can carry the entire world on their shoulders by themselves, right up till the moment they are crushed. Hmph, what nonsense!”

He took a moment to absorb all of that. It was a lot to take in considering that he was still trying to remember what his name was.

"But most importantly, don’t lose sight of who you really are. You’re a good man, with a good heart. Don’t ever forget that and don’t get so caught up in fixing yourself that you wind up breaking what doesn’t need fixing."

“How are you going to make all that happen?” he asked her.

“I’ve already done it," she said, "I've set you on what I hope will be the right path to your redemption." But her tone of voice suggested great uncertainty. As if she wasn't sure that she made the right call.

She stepped up close to him, reached her arm up, and placed a hand on his heart. She looked him dead in the eyes and suddenly her form began to shift again. Not her entire body, but just her eyes and the impression of her face. It was something he sensed more than he could see. Through her eyes he could see a pair of dark brown eyes--soft and sweet. Even with his lost memory he instantly recognized those eyes. He knew that he’d lost himself in them many times and he was about to do so again. Then they suddenly shifted again and became a bright, pale-blue color with small, dark, pinpoints for pupils. He knew those eyes too, and they were just as mesmerizing as the brown ones. Before he could get lost in them, he was looking at Mother again and only Mother.

“A little incentive to inspire you on your journey”, she told him. He suddenly felt a new wave of anxiety pass through him. He knew that his life was probably about to be very difficult for a long time to come. He wondered, briefly, if it had ever been easy to begin with.

“I am truly sorry for doing this to you. But know that I do it not out of cruelty or from a desire to see you suffer, but out of love and from a desire to see you do good in the world. Remember that the strongest swords are forged in fire,” Mother told him in a soft whisper. The kind meant to reassure a frightened child that everything will be alright--even when they both knew that it wouldn’t be.

“You will not remember this dream when you wake up. Don’t worry, it won’t make a difference in the long run. All you need to remember is this: listen and learn, see and understand. I have faith in you and so do many others. I have faith that you will learn from the mistakes you have made and, in time, rise above your demons. Just don't forget to ask for help! 

"Now…... _wake up_!"

**********************************

He awoke with a start. He could sense that he was in a different place from where he was before--the sound of the waves was gone. He isn’t sure how long he’s been out. The pain in his body had thankfully gone down to a dull irritating throb. His head on the other hand still felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to it.

_Baseball bat?_

He didn't know what that was or why he suddenly thought of it. That's when he remembered that he couldn't remember. His mind was a complete blank. Words and thoughts came into his head and then went right back out and he couldn't understand what any of them meant. He tried to reach into his mind to find the memories, but that only made his head hurt more so he stopped trying to do that.

He opened his eyes and all he could see was darkness. His vision was probably still impaired like it was earlier so he decided to give it a minute and see if it would clear up.

Only it didn't.

The darkness remained dark. He couldn't see a thing. Now he started to worry. Scratch that. Now he was getting scared. 

He couldn't remember anything and he couldn't see!

His every instinct was telling him to panic and that's exactly what he did. His breathing suddenly became very shallow and rapid as he started to hyperventilate. He blindly began to grope around in the darkness trying to orient himself with his environment. First, he felt the ground beneath him. He was laying on a hard substance that was smooth to the touch. Next, he began to reach out in the air in front of him to determine what was surrounding him. At first he only felt empty air, but eventually his hands came into contact with another hard substance similar to the first, only this one was rougher and more irregular than the floor. He ran both his hands along the substance to better determine the shape. It was vertical and had a flat but irregular surface in every direction and it had no distinguishing features that he could tell. The word "wall" flitted through his mind so he went with it and decided to call it that.

He tried to stand up on his feet but his legs were too weak to support his weight so he sat back down with his back against the wall. He forced himself to try and steady his breathing so as to calm himself down. He couldn't see anything but that didn't mean he couldn't hear anything. He took three deep breaths to try and steady his nerves and then opened his ears. He could hear the sound of wind blowing nearby. It sounded funny, as if it was blowing up against something. He couldn't feel it though. The air around him felt mostly still with only the occasional cool breeze that brushed against his skin. And the water, he could hear it now. Farther away, but still present. The relentless crashing sound of the waves reassured him that he had not been taken far from where he was before.

He breathed in through his nose and he was able to pick up several scents. The scent of salt was everywhere and in everything. But he could also detect another scent. Stronger and muskier than the salt and much closer to him.

As far as he could tell, nothing around him seemed to indicate that there was anything in the immediate area. He appeared to be completely alone. Wherever he was.

Suddenly, he heard noises off to his right. It sounded like some kind of rhythmic shuffling that was progressively getting louder. It took him a second to realize that the sounds getting progressively louder meant that they were getting closer to him. Something was coming towards him! He wondered if it was the thing that had been dragging him earlier. He immediately began to feel around on the ground in front of him for something, anything, he could use to protect himself in case whatever it was was a threat. It was too late though.

It was here.

He can now hear the sound of the footsteps echoing around him. He must be in an enclosed space--which meant he was trapped.

“Well, well, well”, he heard a voice say. The way it said the words sounded kind of funny, “Look who’s up.”

He froze. He didn’t know what else to do. He had no way of defending himself and he didn’t know precisely where the source of the voice was. If he made one wrong move, he was a dead man. That was assuming of course that the other was a threat. He decided to proceed with caution and assume that whoever it was, was friendly--or at least not hostile.

“Whaaa…..Whaaa…..”, he tried to speak but his voice was so weak and hoarse that he could barely get a word out.

“Careful now. Don’t strain yourself," he felt a hand on his shoulder and he instinctively recoiled at the sudden and unexpected contact. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that. I’m just trying to make sure you’re all right.”

The voice, he thinks it’s a man’s voice, sounded sincere so he relaxed a little. He felt the hand on his shoulder again, only this time the touch was more hesitant. Like it was waiting to see if he’d object to its presence again. He didn’t try to escape this time. Instead, he reached out with his own hand to try and gain some insight into what he now understood to be his rescuer.

His fingers landed on the other man’s shoulder which he gripped at, trying to ground himself. Suddenly, he could feel the air in front of his face moving, like a slight breeze blowing left to right in front of him.

“Can you see me?” the Man asked him waving his hand back and forth in front of his eyes, a note of realization in his voice. Now he seemed to understand why his guest had recoiled from his hand earlier.

He shook his head rapidly and tried to talk again, desperate to gain some insight into his situation, but his voice just came out as another series of scratchy noises.

“Wait here,” the Man told him. He felt another tiny gust as the air in front of him moved rapidly. He heard shuffling noises, followed by a small rushing sound that brought to mind the sound of the ocean in the distance. Then, he heard more shuffling as he heard the Man’s footsteps come towards him.

“Here, drink this, its water”, the Man said while putting what felt like a hairy little ball that had been cut in half into his hands and helping him bring it to his mouth. The cool, fresh, water flowing down his throat gave him immediate relief. He drank it all down in one big gulp so quickly that he nearly choked. When he was done, he held it out in the air for his host to take away and refill. He felt him take it out of his hand and heard him refill the cup. He went through at least six tiny cupfuls before his thirst was quenched and his throat felt somewhat better.

He tried talking again, only this time he spoke softly and slowly so that he didn’t damage his voice.

“Where…..am…..I?”, he rasped out in a hoarse whisper.

“You’re in my cave”, he heard the Man respond. The word rang a bell in his mind but he couldn’t place it.

“Cave?”

“Yes, a cave.”

The Man didn't elaborate on the topic any further.

He began to ask the Man another question when he was interrupted, 

“I know you probably have a lot of questions, but you shouldn’t talk too much with that voice of your’s. You’ll damage your voice.

Considering that his previous attempts at speaking felt like he was trying to swallow sand, he decided to take the Man's advice and stayed silent for the moment.

While he was silent, the Man decided to ask some questions of his own,

"How did you come to be here? Can you remember?" he asked.

He shook his head "no" in response to the Man's query.

"I found you on my beach--washed up like a piece of driftwood. The seagulls were swarming all around you. They must have thought you were dead."

The Man had a terse way of speaking. Short, to the point, and not exactly what you'd call friendly--not unfriendly, but still not exactly what you'd call warm. 

"I brought you back here to my cave to try and nurse you back to health. It wasn't easy, you've been unconcious for several days, and there were times where I thought that you actually were going to die."

_Days!? I’ve been asleep for days!?_

"You kept mumbling and crying out in your sleep like you had a lot on your mind. Something about ‘madren’--I couldn’t make it out clearly. But it definitely reassured me that you might make it.”

The Man paused in his explanations, allowing his guest to absorb everything he had just heard.

“You really can't remember how you got here?”

He decided to try and speak again, just to test and see if his voice had healed somewhat, so he steeled himself and pitched his voice as low as possible so as to keep from straining himself.

"Noooooooooo.....", he said slowly in a low, gravelly, voice--shaking his head as he said it.

"Can you tell me your name? Do you remember that?", the Man asked.

"Noooo."

There was a short pause before the Man spoke again, "That makes two of us then", the Man said with a hint of sadness in his voice, "I've been stranded here for so long in this place by myself--in this Hell--that I can't really remember my name either."

That little story didn't put him at ease--far from it. He needed to know more about his situation right now!

"Wheerrrreee…..arrrrre….weeeee?", he growled, his fearsome sounding tone doing a good job of hiding his fear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to come and hit me up on Twitter with any questions, comments, or concerns. I'm @White_Wolf998 on there too.


	3. Time Gone By

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A startling event causes Maddie to look back on the events of her past and to wonder what it means for her future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's where I stand on Season 3:  
> 1\. Maddie Bishop deserved better.  
> 2\. MADDIE BISHOP. DESERVED. BETTER!  
> 3\. The Polymarine breakup plot was, without a doubt, the stupidest narrative choice the writers could have possibly made and the way they executed it had little to no internal logic--especially where Maddie's story was concerned. The writers completely sidelined her from the main plot of the season and didn't even bother to actually give her a proper character arc beyond breaking up with Ben (and Ryn too apparently), hanging out with some random stranger who I honestly couldn't care less about, and hurting her in the finale by killing off her father. I know there will probably be people who may disagree with me on this but I really wish Robb had never been included in season 3. 90% of the time he was just a plot device who wasted screen time because his only purpose was to keep Maddie away from Ben and Ryn, and I think it really hurt her individual story. I'm also not afraid to admit that, when I was watching 3x07, I had to fight the urge to throw my remote control at the TV screen. So, naturally, "Maddie x Robb" doesn't exist in this fic. It never did. They still hung out for the first six episodes but 3x07 did not happen the way you saw it (cue Men in Black neuralizer flash). In this fic, they had three separate rooms while they were in Alaska, when Robb tried to kiss her she rejected him flat out cause she realized that she still loves Ben and Ryn, and nobody had sex (same goes for Bryn cause they were both too busy pining for Maddie to get in the mood). End of story. And in my version of 3x08, during the wedding, that ridiculous Bryn montage and the two of them "exchanging vows" later has been replaced by the three of them staring longingly at each other and thinking about how much they love and miss each other even though they're at odds right now (the Ben reveal still happened the way it did). The only reason they didn't actually talk to each other and finally make up was because Tia started on her BS.
> 
> Now that I got that off my chest, here's Maddie's first chapter. Hope you enjoy it.
> 
> CW for smut, angst, Maddie trying to make sense of her and Ben's season 3 plot (good luck my love), and references to THAT scene from 2x16. You'll understand when you read the chapter.

Maddie stepped into the spray of warm water and turned her face up towards the showerhead, eyes closed as the soothing cascade washed over her. After the stress of the past few days, this is exactly what she needed. She started to rinse her face & hair when she felt him come up behind her, his front pressing right up against her back.

That was definitely something else that she needed.

She leans back into his touch as he moves her hair out of the way so that he could plant soft, tender, kisses on her neck and shoulder. Any pretense the two of them had of actually trying to get clean are cast aside and forgotten as she reaches up behind her to hold his head in place, encouraging him to continue with his ministrations. His strong arms encircle her and hold her body close to his. 

Maddie revels in the feeling of his hands mapping out the contours of her body--traveling a familiar path from her hips, up her sides and across her stomach, finally coming to a stop and cupping over her breasts. She can feel his erection pressing up against her backside and his ragged breath against her neck. His lust for her is palpable and, truth be told, Maddie can feel her own growing too--the ache between her legs increasing with every second. 

She decides that she isn't in the mood for a lot of teasing and turns around to face him. They start to kiss open-mouthed for a few minutes. She probes at his mouth with her tongue, asking for entrance--which he happily provides. Once she's finished exploring the inside of his mouth, she gently coaxes his tongue into hers so that he can reciprocate. He does so with such a hungry eagerness that it honestly makes her feel like the most desirable woman on Earth. Truth be told, he always made her feel like that whenever they had sex--regardless of whether it was when they made sweet, tender love or just passionately fucked each other like a couple of animals. 

They lost themselves to the feeling of their bodies pressed tightly to each other--their limbs all tangled together. She sighed at the sensation of her breasts being pressed firmly against his chest and of his hard-on against her aching cunt. The feeling of him rubbing against her, but not inside of her, is starting to drive her nuts. She wants more, and she wants it now. But she knows his style too well. He likes to play with his food a little before he eats it.

_Now there's an idea!_

She can feel his hands slide all the way down her back and come to a stop on her ass where he begins to squeeze and knead at her cheeks. His lips travel away from hers, down to her neck, where he begins to gently bite down and suck on the spot where he can feel her pulse. She can't help but feel the corners of her mouth tug into a grin as she moans in ecstasy. She’s grinning at both the pleasant feeling of his hands and mouth on her but also in amusement at his blatant eagerness. She can tell that he's starting to crumble. He wants more too. 

She decides to do a little squeezing of her own to encourage him into hurrying up already and reaches down between his legs and finds his rock hard cock. Her other hand comes up to run her fingers through his short, buzz-cut hair--trying to find some kind of grip while she holds him to her neck as he sucks on it like he's a vampire. She begins to gently, but firmly, stroke the length of his shaft. She can feel his breathing hitch a little at the sensation of her hand around his member.

_Got him!_

He finally takes his mouth off of her throat and the two of them pause their groping for a second. They get distracted from their lust as they stared longingly into each other's eyes--grinning at each other like the love-struck idiots that they were. She'd always been a sucker for Ben's baby-blue eyes.

Eventually, she gets impatient and pulls him back in so that they can continue with their little make out session. The feeling of the warm water washing over the two of them definitely added to the sensuality of the moment. Maddie takes one of Ben's hands and guides it down between her legs so he could feel how wet she already is (and not just from the shower), and so that he'll finally take the hint that she's ready for him. He probably, already knows that she is. But he's not done playing with her yet. 

She lets out a little noise that sounds like a mix between a sigh of pleasure and a whine of frustration as he begins to gently run his fingers through her sodden folds, occasionally dipping a finger inside of her while his thumb rubbed tight circles on her clit. Okay, maybe she was in the mood for a little teasing.

When she finally can't take anymore, she takes Ben's hand away from her core and places his finger in her mouth where she sucks it clean--tasting her own arousal--while looking him dead in the eyes with a sultry, half-lidded gaze. One look at his face and she can see, clear as day, that there won't be anymore teasing now. She removes his finger from her mouth and places his hand on her hip before reaching down and guiding the tip of his cock towards her warm entrance. He immediately grabs hold of her thigh and places it around his hip so as to give himself better leverage and easier access. He wrapped his other arm protectively around Maddie's waist to help hold her steady so that she wouldn't slip and fall. Yeah, shower sex is intimate and hot and all that but it's also awkward as hell, and if you aren't careful, you'll wind up slipping and falling on your ass which makes for an extremely embarrassing visit from the paramedics and an equally embarassing trip to the hospital.

Once Ben is finally buried about half-way inside of her and they've had a chance to get used to the feel of each other, he begins to thrust into Maddie at a firm but steady pace which she eagerly tries to match--their hips colliding with each other, creating small sprays of water droplets.

Maddie wraps one arm around Ben's broad shoulders to steady herself while she holds onto the curtain rod with her other hand. His cock felt so good as it brushed against that special spot inside of her. She could feel herself getting close.

_Yes! Right there Ben! Please don't stop!_

Her hand catches on the curtain and she accidentally pulls it aside.

That's when the dream changes.

Usually, when the curtain is pulled away, they find Ryn standing there watching them with big curious eyes just like when it happened in reality. In Maddie's dreams, however, Ryn usually joins them and the three of them share in that intimate moment together like they would many times later on.

But this time, things happen very differently.

First, Maddie got a feeling like she was just punched in the gut that felt nothing like an orgasm. It was followed by a burning sensation that spread throughout her body from the point of impact. The world around her took on a hazy, almost liquid quality until she found herself in a different place altogether.

Now, she and Ben were fully dressed in winter clothes. They were in some strange forest at night time. Ryn was there too, standing next to her and crying out in horror, trying to hold onto her as she fell to the ground.

" _NO!_ ", Ryn screamed.

Maddie could hear the sounds of Ben and her father crying out as well. A pair of soldiers were violently dragging Ben away from her and Ryn, trying to subdue him as he struggled to get to them. Maddie collapsed on a bed of moss while Ryn lay on top of her and held her close, desperately trying to protect her and help her in the only way she could think of. But soon there was another pair of soldiers who were pulling Ryn away from her as well. Her dad is there now, cradling her in his arms, telling her to hold on, and yelling out for a medic. She can hear the sounds of Ben & Ryn struggling with the soldiers just out of sight, constantly calling her name.

Then something really weird happened. Suddenly, she couldn't feel the pain in her abdomen anymore. Instead, she now felt an arm around her neck, holding her in a chokehold. She could see herself lying motionless on the ground a few meters away in her father's arms, bleeding out. She understood what happened to her now: she'd been shot in the gut. She can also see Ryn more clearly now off to the side. She's fighting the soldiers tooth and nail while they try to restrain her--never once stopping in her attempt to get to Maddie, calling out for her in anguish.

Maddie could feel her mouth moving of its own accord, but the voice she heard coming out of it wasn't hers at all.

" _NO! MADDIE!!_ ", she heard Ben's voice screaming.

That's when it clicked. She was seeing all this happen from Ben's perspective. But just why exactly, she had no idea. Why was she seeing this happen through Ben's eyes? And why did it all feel so real?

She could feel Ben's fear and horror as he watched helplessly while Ryn was being dragged away by the soldiers and Maddie bled out on the ground. He couldn't help them. He was fighting as hard as he could to break free and get to them but the soldier's grip around his neck was ironclad. He couldn't help them.

" _NO! MADDIE! RY-RYN!_ "

" _MADDIE! AAAAGGHHH!_ "

Their grief-stricken screams echoed throughout the forest. But the trees were as uncaring as the soldiers who were ripping them away from each other. Ben could see that son of a bitch Kyle coming up and putting a hood over Ryn's head as she roared at him in defiance. He knew they were going to take her away, to lock her in a cage and experiment on her--torture her like they did Donna. He couldn't bear the thought of his beloved Ryn being mistreated in such a way. But as much as he feared for Ryn, it was nothing compared to the terror that gripped him at the sight of Maddie lying motionless on the ground.

 _This can't be happening! This can't be happening! Not Maddie! Please God, not Maddie!_ , was the only thought running through his head over and over.

"NO! Maddie! Maddie….Maddiiiee….", Ben could feel his voice dying pitifully in his throat, along with his heart, as he saw the unthinkable happen: Maddie Bishop, the love of his life, was dead.

And it was all his fault.

Everything that had happened was his fault. He saved Ian's life and it led to all this. He saved Ian's life and it led to Ryn being taken away forever where she'd be tortured in a lab. He saved Ian's life and now Maddie was dead.

He decided then that he couldn't save Ian's life now. Not if it meant losing Maddie forever. 

He had to let Ian die. For Maddie.

*******************************************

Maddie woke with a start. It took her a minute to ground herself back in reality, the dream she'd had was still fresh in her mind. But all it took was a few seconds for her to catch her breath to realize that she was safe in her own bed, in her own home. A quick brush of her hand over her stomach reassured her that she was whole and unharmed. She was safe.

Maddie turned over and saw the sleeping form of her wife lying next to her. Ryn had her back to her and was spooning the big body pillow that they always kept on the other side of the bed. A brief pang of sadness came over her as she thought about the absence of the person that pillow failed to fill. She couldn’t help it; not after the dream she just had.

Ryn turned over in her sleep to where she was now facing Maddie. Maddie couldn’t help but feel a small smile tug at the corners of her mouth as she watched Ryn sleeping what she hoped was a peaceful sleep. She could see Ryn’s eyes moving beneath her eyelids which let her know that her wife was dreaming away. She always wondered what Ryn dreamed about. Even now, after living on land for years, dreams were still something that confused the mermaid. And whenever Maddie asked her about them, she often struggled to articulate them. When she did though, they often sounded quite strange. One memorable recollection involved Ryn talking about how she, in her human form, tried to fight off a shark that had come onto land to steal all the jello from the supermarket. She said that Maddie was there too, off to the side and dressed like a cheerleader, rooting for her while Helen was running bets on who would win (and apparently telling everyone that the odds were in favor of the shark). Maddie had nearly spit out her coffee when Ryn told her that one. 

Others were a bit more mundane. A great many of them, Ryn told her, were about her life in the water and on land. Sometimes she dreamed about being with her sister again, the two of them swimming together and hunting in the ocean. She also dreamed about her children quite a bit and of being with them on land and in the water. But Maddie could tell by the way she talked about them, that Ryn’s favorite dreams were the ones of Ben & Maddie being in the water with her and her children as mermaids, where they all lived together as a family. Maddie usually just hugged her after that when she saw the crestfallen look that would start to form on Ryn’s face. Maddie told her that she often dreamed about that too.

Careful so as not to wake her, Maddie pressed a gentle kiss onto Ryn’s hairline and then turned back over to look at her alarm clock. She saw that it was almost 5:00 am, so she decided against trying to go back to sleep and went ahead with getting started on her daily routine, quietly slipping out of bed so as to not disturb Ryn.

She took her hair out of its bonnet and tied it back in a simple ponytail before changing into her running clothes. She always liked to go out for a morning run to help clear her head of sleep and to prepare for the day. She tried to get Ryn into running with her but the mermaid had gotten very used to sleeping in while on land and decided that she was definitely not a morning person, so Maddie just let her sleep. Every so often she tried to gently stir Ryn awake early to see if she might have changed her mind about going on a morning run together. And everytime she did, Ryn would growl at her like she was her mortal enemy and then burrow deeper into the covers to try and escape. 

To this day, Maddie couldn't figure out how a fearsome predator like Ryn could also be the most adorable creature on the planet. It was definitely one of the many things Maddie loved about her. This particular morning Maddie left Ryn alone to enjoy what she hoped were good dreams.

Maddie went into the kitchen to get herself something to eat before her run. She made herself some oatmeal with a few banana slices on top so that she could get her carbs in since she liked to take long runs that required a little extra energy than what a simple protein bar could provide. As she ate her food on the island, her eyes wandered to the photographs that were stuck on the fridge with magnets and reminisced on the memories they showed.

There was a picture of her and Ryn from their honeymoon to Hawaii, back when everyone thought the Coronavirus Pandemic was truly over and it was safe to travel for a while. Maddie had doubts back then that it was truly safe (and in the end she had been right when the Simian Flu hit six months later) but she wanted Ryn to have the experience of going on a vacation like that, and decided that it was worth the risk. Despite the extra precautions they had to take, they enjoyed their trip immensely and managed to get home with no problems and in perfect health. Of course they had to put themselves through a two week quarantine when they got back, but that basically extended their honeymoon so they weren’t exactly complaining.

There were other pictures as well of their life together. There was a picture of Ryn with Hope when she was still a small child that Helen had taken while Maddie was in the Philippines. And another of Maddie & Ryn with Hope and the two little twins--along with an ultrasound picture taken of them during Ryn's pregnancy. Maddie thought back on the memory of that event.

A month and a half after Maddie left for the Philippines, Ryn called her to tell her that she was pregnant. She had told Maddie before that the mating season was coming again and that she and her tribe were going to try for more babies. Maddie honestly still had mixed feelings about the thought of Ryn being with someone else besides her and Ben but she understood the necessity of it. The war had nearly wiped out Ryn’s entire tribe and now more than ever they needed to replenish their numbers. But Maddie still hadn't expected for Ryn to actually get pregnant without the aid of human science. Not after last season where none of them were able to, even after coming on to land. 

This time though, the complete opposite happened; not only did Ryn get pregnant, but so did several other females in Ryn's tribe. Several days prior to the “event”, Ryn brought her entire tribe onto land and kept them there so that they could be absolutely certain that all the pollutants in the water had been completely purged from their bodies when they finally mated. She even had all the females go through the hybrids’ fertility ritual just to be sure. Clearly, all of Ryn’s planning had worked. Her tribe now included six new members, including Ryn's twins. The future of their species was safe. The only time Maddie had seen Ryn smile as big as she did when she told her the good news prior to that point, had been on the day Hope had been born.

After she and Ryn finished their call, Maddie immediately got on the first flight back to the US. As much as she loved being a part of Robb's ocean cleanup project, she wasn't going to let Ryn go through her first pregnancy alone. All the other females had decided to go back to the water to give birth except for Ryn, who wanted to be on land with Maddie for her's. Thankfully, Ryn had acquired enough prior land-time that she could stay for the full length of her three month pregnancy before she started to show any signs of degradation. 

The hybrid doctor, Leena, oversaw the delivery (Ryn had insisted on a water birth the second she heard of it) and Maddie honestly had never been more scared in her whole life as she was that day. Every time Ryn screamed through a contraction or through a push, Maddie felt her heart leap into her throat. But Ryn made it safely through the delivery of both babies and Maddie had been so happy for her, and so relieved that she was okay, that she felt like her heart was going to burst. When all was said and done, she kissed Ryn in a way that she hoped conveyed all the love and devotion she felt for the mermaid. It did, and a few days later when she came back to land after leaving her children with the males, Ryn asked Maddie if she would marry her. Maddie didn't even hesitate to say yes.

Ryn gave birth to a boy and a girl, both of them beautiful and healthy--ten fingers, ten toes, big blue eyes, and (according to Ryn after she took them to the water) a strong little flipper-tail on each of them. Ryn had already decided on names for the both of them before they were born. The girl was named Evangeline (Eva for short) after the star from the movie _The Princess and The Frog_. The two of them had watched the movie during Ryn's pregnancy and Ryn had been so taken by the "love story" between the firefly and the star (and how it reminded her of her own love for Ben and Maddie) that she insisted on naming her girl baby Evangeline after they found out the sexes of the babies. Ryn didn't even need to think about what she was going to name her boy: Ben.

Maddie loved both names and she loved both of those babies with all her heart. 

Hope, who had been brought to land for the delivery by Levi (who had also come to protect Ryn while she gave birth), was so excited and happy to have two little siblings after witnessing the births of all the other merbabies in the water. She was practically bouncing around the Ranch all day long waiting to see them and when she was finally allowed into the room, she was completely in awe at the sight of her mother lying in bed with the two little bundles in her arms.

They were all in the water right now with the males of Ryn's tribe. The three of them had all grown to what would be the human equivalent of an eleven year old (thirteen in Hope's case) and the girls both found their Songs, but they were all still considered too young and too small to hunt with the females. So they were being kept in the safety of the hidden underwater nurseries where the Mers reared their young according to Ryn.

They all came to land once to visit Ryn and Maddie the same as when Levi and Mate had brought Hope after she made her first kill. They were able to spend the day together as a family and that was when that picture had been taken. Eventually the kids had been forced to go back to the water when they started to deteriorate. Ryn chose not to go with them since she was being more careful with how much she transformed but also because it simply wasn’t the way of the mermaids for the females to be present a lot while their young grew up. As much as Ryn wanted to keep them on land with her and Maddie, she knew how important it was for the three of them to grow up in their true forms. To know the ways of the ocean and learn how to survive and be strong like their mother. It didn't make the separation any less painful for her, or for Maddie either. 

To Maddie, Hope and the twins were as much her children as they were Ryn's, and not being able to raise them and watch them grow hurt like hell. But if she was being honest with herself, the pain of absences was nothing new in her life, as she looked over the other pictures on the fridge.

A picture of her and her father. A picture of her with her mother on her wedding day. The fact that they weren't the same picture was so wrong to her on a fundamental level. After her father died, Maddie was certain that her mom would relapse again. She didn't.

When she got back home from her trip and reconnected with Ryn, Maddie went to see her mother for the first time in months. She hadn't spoken to her at the funeral--she honestly didn't speak to anyone for weeks, she had been so numb at the time. Part of her felt guilty for putting it off for so long and for leaving Bristol Cove without telling her, but after losing her dad and Ben all in the same day, Maddie didn't think she had the strength or the patience to deal with her mother. But she knew that, eventually, she was going to have to go and see her to check and make sure that she was alright. It was the right thing to do.

When she knocked on the door, Susan answered almost immediately. She looked clear-eyed, healthy, and absolutely relieved to see Maddie. She had held no resentment whatsoever towards her daughter for leaving without saying anything; reasoning that she had finally gotten a taste of her own medicine. She was completely honest with Maddie and admitted to nearly falling off the wagon again after Dale died and Maddie left, but she didn't give in to the urge to get high. She refused to let Maddie down like that again after everything that happened and stayed committed to getting sober.

That night, Maddie finally told her mother the truth about how her dad died--and the truth about Ryn. She told her about how Ryn came into their lives and what had happened to Ben with the Siren Song. She also told her about the circumstances surrounding their falling out. Susan believed her story without question, which honestly shocked Maddie more than anything. Her mother told her that she didn't think that Maddie would have any reason to lie to her about such a thing.

By the end of her story, Maddie was sobbing in her mother's arms as months (maybe even years) of repressed emotions finally spilled out of her. She wept for her father who she couldn't protect from the world that she had become a part of. She wept for her mother, who's struggle she now understood better after being Sung to by Ryn and experiencing first hand what it felt like to lose control in the worst way, and to be at the mercy of something more powerful than herself. 

She wept for Ben, the man she still loved with all her heart in spite of their conflict with each other, and how they hadn't been able to make things right before she lost him. She wept for Ryn, the mermaid who had stolen her heart, and how she had been forced to shoulder the burdens of her people in order to help save them. Ryn who was now pregnant with babies that she'd eventually have to give up, and who would in time be forced to choose between a life on land or in the ocean--which would mean leaving behind loved ones either way.

But most of all, she wept for herself. She wept for the peaceful life she had been denied for so long and all the losses that she had suffered. Her mother said nothing. She just held Maddie in her arms and comforted her, crying silent tears of her own.

After that night, Maddie and her mother began the slow process of rebuilding their relationship to the point where, when Maddie told her that she and Ryn were getting married, she didn't hesitate to ask Susan to walk her down the aisle. And Susan had been more than happy to say yes.

That had been two years ago.

For two years, Maddie and Ryn have been living a happy life together in Bristol Cove as a married couple. In spite of all the troubles plaguing the world in that time, the two of them had finally been able to find a small measure of peace. No military scientists, no oil companies, and no homicidal mermaids looking to challenge Ryn’s authority and make war on humanity. In that time, Maddie finished grad school and was now a full marine biologist. She was now in charge of the Marine Research Center and oversaw the extension of Robb’s ocean cleanup project that they had talked about setting up in Bristol Cove. She had also managed to get herself published for both her work with the cleanup project and some of her own personal work she had carried out in Bristol Cove. She was becoming something of a rising star in the world of marine biology and she had to admit that she was pretty pleased with herself for that. It also helped that she had a mermaid for a wife who was, without a doubt, the best research assistant she could ask for and never failed to mention her contributions--in a way, of course, that didn’t give away the fact that she was a mermaid.

When Maddie finally finished with her pre-run breakfast, she placed her bowl in the sink and began to head out the door. On her way out, she stopped for a second to look at one last picture on the fridge. It was a picture of her, Ryn and Ben; taken when they absconded for a little weekend trip to the Pownall cabin for some much needed alone time after all the insanity they'd had to deal with in the prior months.

In the photo, Ryn was being sandwiched between the two of them in a hug (Ben facing her front, Maddie her back) while they stood in front of a giant tree outside the cabin. It was the only picture she had of the three of them together as a throuple. She couldn’t help but note the sad irony that, a few weeks after this photo was taken, the three of them would break up. Or rather, she would break up with Ben.

To this day Maddie still wasn’t sure how she felt about Ben’s choice to leave Ian to die. She’d be a liar and a hypocrite if she didn’t admit to herself that she thought that Ben was justified in doing what he did. She guessed that she kind of was in a way, given how she reacted when he finally told her. But at the time, she just couldn’t shake off the fear and shock that had taken hold of her when he admitted to what he did. The knowledge that Ben, her Ben, the man that she had fallen in love with because he was kind, gentle, and compassionate, had willingly chosen to let another man die. She just couldn’t comprehend the idea of such a thing and it wound up reigniting all of her fears that he was changing for the worse because of Ryn’s Song. The fact that he and Ryn had kept it from her for so long only made those fears worse and felt like a huge betrayal of her trust. And that didn’t even begin to go into what he had been doing with those stem cells from the dead mermaid.

Ryn told her that he had been doing the experiments to help his mother, and she found his little video diaries documenting them that had proven that--but she also knew Ben. When they were first going out, Ben had been so devoted and attentive to her, she felt like the center of his world at times. She didn’t think much of it back then because she honestly enjoyed having someone else who cared about her like that and who wanted to take care of her for once instead of the other way around. But she knew that his mother was telling the truth when she told Maddie about his tendency to fixate on something he cared passionately about. And she had seen first hand how Ryn’s Song took that passion and turned it into a near obsession. Even after they went to the echo chamber and listened to the healing song, she still worried that he wasn’t fully healed and his behavior during the events surrounding the mating season--the conflict between him and Ryn and his choice to leave Ian to die--seemed to confirm her suspicions that Ben's mind was still broken in many ways. Why else would he have dug up that mermaid?

Looking back, she understood now that what happened with Ben and the stem cells was the inevitable result of him finally being overcome by both the negative circumstances of his life and his own worst impulses. His desperation to find a cure for his mother, the opportunity presented by the stem cells of the dead mermaid, and his own self-sacrificing nature all would have blinded him to any danger that such a course of action might have presented to himself. And once the changes to his physiology began to aggravate his Song-induced fixation with Ryn, she knew that it would have led to the creation of a perfect storm that he’d easily lose himself in. 

But a secret part of Maddie couldn’t help but wonder if maybe she herself might also have driven Ben into doing what he did. 

She had gotten angry with him and left him over his choice to let Ian die, and it wasn’t long after that when he began his experiments. Was there an aspect of cause and effect at play there?

Whenever that thought entered her mind, she’d immediately reprimand herself for thinking like that. What happened wasn’t her fault. He’s a grown man who made his own choices, regardless of whatever exigent circumstances drove him to them. It wasn’t her responsibility or her obligation to hold his hand and guide him towards the right one and she shouldn't blame herself when he failed to do that. She had made it very clear many times, that wasn’t the kind of relationship she needed in her life, and she still stood by that even now. 

But when her anger and frustration finally lessened in the wake of loss and grief, she couldn't help but to keep asking herself those questions that were haunting her. Why did he do it? Why did he leave Ian to die in the first place? He said that it had been to protect the secret, but her instincts told her that there was more to it than that. Something he still hadn’t told her. Ben wasn’t a cold-blooded killer--she knew that in her heart of hearts, even when she had been angry with him. If he made the choice to let Ian die, he had to have a reason to do so that, to him at the time, was absolutely inarguable. When he finally confessed the truth to her, he had been so adamant that he made the right choice and nothing she said to him seemed to have changed his stance.

She refused to believe that Ben, even if he felt justified, would be unaffected by the knowledge that someone died because of him. That they died because he chose not to save them when he could have at least tried. When Ryn and Donna were about to kill Decker, Ben physically stood between them to stop it from happening--even though it meant that he was going against what Ryn wanted.

What was different about what Ian did that warranted such a change of beliefs? Him kidnapping Ryn to expose her? It would make sense. The only other time Ben had shown a willingness to use deadly force was when he thought Ryn was in mortal danger and the Song was driving him to protect her at all costs. Her gut told her that that wasn’t it though. It may have been a part of what drove him to that choice, but it wasn’t the deciding factor. 

Suddenly, she thought back to her dream. Her very vivid, very weird, and very inexplicable dream. She watched herself die through Ben's eyes and she had felt his thoughts when it happened. In the dream, he had blamed himself for what had happened to her because he let Ian live. But he didn’t let Ian live. Then it dawned on her.

_Was it me? Was Ben afraid of what might happen to ME if he let Ian live? Was he afraid of what would happen to both Ryn and I?_

She told herself that was impossible. There was no way Ben could possibly have imagined all of that happening in the few seconds he was down there deciding whether or not to save Ian. Much less in the exact way as she dreamed. Could he have? She realized that if he did--in even the most remote way--if it was his fear of losing her that drove Ben into leaving Ian, then her getting angry with him and leaving him because of it may have utterly destroyed any confidence he may have had in his choice. She didn’t have to stretch her imagination to realize that any guilt he might have been feeling over what he did probably would have increased tenfold after that. 

Did he start experimenting on himself as some stupid, misguided way of proving to himself--and eventually to her--that he made the right choice? Was he so distraught by the fact that she disapproved of what he did for her that his mind--already in a damaged state from the Song--simply snapped?

_But if that really was the reason for him leaving Ian, why didn’t he tell me!?_

_If he had, would you have reacted any differently? He still would have left a man to die based on nothing but his own improbable fears. But were they that improbable? Ian KIDNAPPED Ryn! He kidnapped her while she was helpless and drugged; he was going to use her to expose all of the other Mers to the entire world. There’s no telling how that would have turned out if even one influential person believed him. The military certainly would have reacted with extreme prejudice if they thought there was a security threat to their little project or if they thought that they finally had an opening to fully exploit Ryn and her people._

_And don’t forget, Ian tried to run Ben down with his car when we tried to stop him. If Ryn hadn’t turned the wheel and driven it over the cliff, you’d have a dead boyfriend instead of an ex-boyfriend._

_But I do have a dead (ex-)boyfriend now._

_He’s dead because his stupid injections made him think he could go into a fight that he wasn't equipped to handle._

_He went into that fight to save Hope and he was doing those injections in the first place to help his mother._

_He still shouldn't have been doing them. He could have gotten himself hurt and he was clearly addicted to them by the end._

_Well you weren't exactly there to discourage him or to help him find a better idea in the first place. You were too busy going out for coffee dates with a complete stranger._

_Robb was just a friend. I liked being around him and talking about things that didn't have anything to do with mermaids for once. There's nothing wrong with me wanting to have a life outside of my relationship with Ben and Ryn._

_That probably wasn't the vibe you gave Ben when you let Robb kiss you on the cheek right in front of him. Or when he was flirting really hard with you after the two of you literally just met and things were still kind of ambiguous between you and Ben? Okay yeah, I should have nipped that in the bud sooner. But Ben could have said something about it to me instead of just standing there with his mouth agape!_

_He did say something the night that Hope was born. And you got pissed at him for it._

_I got pissed at him because he was being a dick to me about it!_

_Well what did you expect? You called him a murderer, refused to speak to him, and then started hanging out with some strange guy who was obviously trying to put the moves on you after you guys had already been betrayed twice by people who you thought you could trust. Doesn't exactly sound like an encouragement for him to try and win you back._

_I just needed space._

_And he gave you that. You were the one who didn't tell him that "space" really meant "it's over". But I didn't want it to be over! So why didn't you tell him that? Why'd you let him think that you didn't want to be with him anymore. Because I found out that he dug up a dead goddamn mermaid and was injecting its cells into his fucking body! Because he was the one who was starting to shut ME out! Doesn't exactly sound like an encouragement for me to take him back, huh!?_

_Well maybe Ben wouldn’t have dug up that mermaid in the first place if you had been there- NO!!! IT’S NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY TO BE HIS CONSCIOUS!!! HE MADE HIS OWN FUCKING CHOICE!!! I HAVE A RIGHT TO STAND UP FOR MYSELF AND DECIDE WHAT I WON’T TOLERATE IN MY PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS!!! I WILL NOT BE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF!!! IF BEN CAN'T MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE ON HIS OWN THEN MAYBE WE SHOULDN'T BE TOGETHER!!! I'VE ALREADY BEEN THERE ONCE AND I'M NOT INTERESTED IN GOING BACK!!!_

_Ben's situation wasn't the same as your mom's. You know that. He didn't ask to be Sung to by Ryn in the first place and he never wanted (or tried) to hurt either of you. And you know now what it feels like to be affected by the Song and how hard it is to resist._

_And as for the stem cells? What other options do you think he had? Work with the military again after everything they did? Harvest more cells from a live mermaid? From Ryn? Remember how that went? Or maybe he should have tested the cells of the dead mermaid on someone else and then sat back to watch and see what happened? Out of all those terrible options is it any wonder that Ben decided to do what he did, even if it was still a terrible idea? He probably thought that what he was doing was the only option in which only one person would be at risk of getting hurt: himself._

_But it wasn't! What he did might not have hurt anyone else physically, but if something went wrong and we lost him, everyone who loved him would be hurt by it. Including Ryn and I. And you know what? That is exactly what happened in the end! He's gone and while there might not be a scratch on any of us, we still have to live with the pain of his absence!_

_So much for self-sacrifice!_

_Yeah, Ben fucked up; no question about it. He shouldn’t have dug up that mermaid, and he shouldn’t have injected himself with the stem cells. He DEFINITELY shouldn’t have kept it and the truth about Ian a secret from me. His heart may have been in the right place but what he did was still stupid and reckless and in all likelyhood he probably lost sight of why he was doing it in the first place when it started going to his head. That's all on him._

_……...But I fucked up too._

_I could have at least listened to him about his reasons for leaving Ian. Heard him out instead of shutting him out and getting distracted by Robb. He deserved that much at least. Ryn killed a man with her bare hands to protect me and I told her she had nothing to apologize for. I meant what I said back then but it doesn’t mean that what she did didn’t scare the shit out of me at the time._

_She didn’t even hesitate. None of them do. Cami, Levi, Ryn. They all killed someone, physically killed them, without breaking a sweat when they really didn’t have to. Or maybe they thought that they did? That’s the world they come from, the choice they have to constantly make: eat or be eaten, kill or be killed. And it has to be made in a split second with no doubt about whether or not it’s the right thing to do because otherwise they're dead._

_Was that the choice Ben made with Ian? He could easily have drowned if he stayed down there for too long trying to break Ian out of his car. He wouldn’t have a long time to work in. If he truly believed that Ian was a credible threat, then maybe he just decided that it wasn’t worth risking his life to even try. And Ian was probably going to die anyway. His final actions in life would have been to threaten the loves of your life for his own personal gain. Is that really the kind of person I wanted Ben to risk his life for?_

_Ryn said that she left Ian to die as well and I told her that it was different for her. Why was it different? Because she’s an animal and that’s just what she does? NO! That’s not it! Then why was it different? I don’t know! Yes you do._

_It wasn't. Not really._

_Ryn isn't completely mindless in the water. She's proven that plenty of times. They both could have saved him. They both chose to let him die. Why was I more willing to forgive Ryn than Ben for doing the same thing? Is it because I was afraid of how Ben was changing? Maybe? But I was changing too. I was willing to break the law before to help Ryn and her people. What would I have done if I was in Ben’s place? What would I do if I had to make the same choices?_

_Was I wrong to leave him? To judge him so harshly? If I had stayed, could I have stopped him from experimenting on himself? Would he still have done it anyway and kept it a secret from us? He kept the fact that he was listening to the recording from us. Could we have found a better way together to help his mother that didn’t involve Ben losing himself to another addiction?_

Maddie shook her head to clear her mind of all those thoughts and wiped away the tears of grief and anger that had been forming at the corners of her eyes. She’d had this argument with herself many times before and it always led to nowhere except anger and regret.

There was no point in tormenting herself now with these kinds of questions. Ben was gone. He was dead and gone, along with her father. There would never be any answers to her questions about what happened and what could have been. She had to live in the here and now with Ryn. Otherwise, she would just drive herself insane. And if she was being honest with herself, after two and a half years of not having him in her life, she didn’t really care anymore at this point. She didn’t care about what happened with Ian. She didn’t care about the stem cells. She didn’t care about the Song. She didn't care about any of it. Those things weren’t her Ben. They were his mistakes, his demons, but they weren’t who he really was.

Ben was his warm smiles and strong hugs. He was the person who loved to make breakfast for her and Ryn in the morning before they woke up. He was the man who kissed their hands with the same amount of tenderness and devotion as when he kissed their lips. He was the intelligent person who shared her passion for the environment and who Maddie loved to brainstorm with because they just clicked together perfectly, and he was also a goofy idiot who never failed to make her smile when he tried to use that “famous Pownall charm” on her. That was her Ben. That was the man she and Ryn fell in love with, and who they missed every single day. All she wanted now was to have him back; for him to come home and fill the spot of that stupid pillow.

Maddie took one last look at the photo of the three of them and then finally made her way out the door. She definitely needed a run to clear her head now. That dream had really thrown her off kilter.

 _Wouldn't be the first time_ , she thought to herself.

Maddie had been having strange and intense dreams all her life and ever since she met Ryn they seemed to be getting worse. In the years after Ben's death she had begun to experience many dreams that involved him (or the three of them) in some way and they were all just as vivid and unusual as this most recent one. 

She never told anyone in her life about her dreams because she didn’t want to worry them too much, but also because she never really understood them to begin with or how she could possibly explain them. They were simply a part of her.

 _I guess I have my own secrets too_ , she thought. She stopped herself there before she let that little thought-bunny hop too far.

One particular recurring dream that she'd had many times in her life that seemed to have stuck with her--and which she had a few days prior to meeting Ryn--was one where she was walking in the earth, beneath the earth, until she came to an underground cave. 

In the cave, she saw a big, shaggy, white buffalo with flaming eyes slowly trotting up to her--every step it took seemed to shake the earth around her. When it came to a halt in front of her, she felt so overwhelmed by the power that she felt radiating from the beast that she fell to her knees before it. 

She could feel the moisture emanating from its breath as it snorted in her face. The buffalo would look at her with its flaming eyes in a way that felt as if it was reading her very soul. Finally, it would then open its mouth and say one word to her in a deep rumbling voice:

“ _Believe_ ”

It sounded like her father’s voice.

*********************************************

Maddie ran her usual route through the streets of Bristol Cove for about an hour and a half. It was still early in the morning so the town was mostly empty and all was quiet. The town hadn’t changed much in the last few years. By some miracle, the coronavirus and the Simian Flu hadn’t hit them as hard as it did in other parts of the country, but they still felt the effects of both.

Sure they had a few isolated cases--mostly among the people who regularly traveled out of town for work and the people they frequently interacted with--but the people here had been smart enough to enforce a self-quarantine and to practice social distancing. And once things got really bad, the town council had Marissa set up full-on barricades on the roads in and out of town to regulate who came and went. Things were that bad that nobody was complaining. 

The real damage they had felt was mostly economical. The town lost a lot of the income it got from hosting all the mermaid themed tourist attractions (including Calvin’s Mermaid Tours and Helen’s shop) when the town council, led by Ted Pownall, unanimously decided not to host any sort events as a part of the effort to stop the spread of Covid in 2020. It worked well enough, but a lot of people’s livelihoods were hurt as a result.

But the damage done by coronavirus was nothing compared to the Simian Flu. 

It came out of nowhere during the brief period when people thought the worst of Covid-19 had passed and started to get lax on prevention efforts and there was still no official story about how it began. The only thing that was known for certain was that it started in the United States. Some people said it was made by a corporation that was trying to cure the coronavirus and something went horribly wrong. Or that they created the virus deliberately so as to make billions selling the cure that they had ready made. Others suggested that it was the military who created the virus as part of a top secret bio-warfare project. She wished she could have laughed that one off but she knew from experience that such "conspiracy theories" were more true than she liked to admit. 

They called it the Simian Flu because, just prior to the first recorded cases in San Francisco, there had been a mass rampage of apes who escaped from the zoo, a local sanctuary, and (rumor had it) a research lab. Maddie was still having a hard time believing that one even after she saw the footage of the event herself. Naturally, the internet immediately assumed that there was a connection and it soon became the accepted truth.

The Simian Flu had a higher infection rate (and a higher death toll) than the coronavirus did and it was spreading across the globe like wildfire--mutating faster than scientists trying to find a vaccine could predict--with chaos, violence, and misinformation spreading just as quickly in its wake, and it didn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.

The town’s tourist business was pretty much done for after that. Nobody wanted to go to the Mermaid Days Festival in Bristol Cove when they were too afraid that it would lead to them coughing up blood and dying later on. That was assuming that there actually was anyone from the outside who wanted to come to the festival.

But even in the face of all that, the town still found a way to live on. The fishermen still managed to go out and make their catches--which the Pownalls then sold to the outside world--helping to keep the town afloat. But it was definitely a hard life. With so many people leaving town to find work elsewhere or to be with kin in other parts of the state (or the country), Bristol Cove was a lot emptier these days. It hurt Maddie’s heart to see her home suffering like this, especially after all she and so many others did to protect it. But she told herself that they would all find a way through this together. She knew they would. They had to.

Maddie’s run took her towards the docks where she looked out over the water while she stopped to catch her breath. The ocean was always beautiful to her, but she had to admit that--on this side of the country--the best time to view it was when the sun went down. On a clear day, the sunset would throw so many beautiful colors out over the water that it just took your breath away.

While Maddie looked out at the water, her troubled thoughts she had been running from began to find her again.

The ocean. It was her passion, her inspiration, and seemingly her curse. She dedicated her life to protecting it and, in return, one of its inhabitants killed her father. Her town, her people, depended on it now more than ever for their survival and she supported them, but she also had to be the one to come in and tell them to look somewhere else so they didn't overexploit it. Which of course made her seem like, in their eyes, a heartless bitch who cared more about the lives of squid than of people's kids.

It had given her one of the loves of her life and stolen the other from her.

Suddenly, she got the feeling again. 

For the past week or so she had been getting a strange feeling in the back of her mind and in the pit of her stomach. The kind you get when a big storm is on its way and you can just feel it in the air. That unbearable stillness where you’re waiting on pins and needles for it to just rain already because you can’t take the anxiety of waiting anymore. 

What was she waiting for? Did it have anything to do with the virus? Were there going to be more mermaid problems that she and Ryn were going to have to deal with. Or maybe it had to do with the dream she just had? She couldn't even begin to guess what it was.

Maddie put those troubling thoughts aside as she looked at her watch and saw that she’d have to get home soon and get ready for work. She wondered if Ryn had woken up yet. She usually did around this time.

Maddie turned on her heel and began to make her way back to her and Ryn’s apartment. She wasn’t going to bother getting a coffee because she knew that, if Ryn was up, she already would have put a pot on for her. As she made her way home, she couldn’t shake that nagging feeling she had about the storm that she was waiting for. She’d had instincts like this all her life and they had always been right.

Something was coming her way; she knew that much. Something was coming her way and she could sense that it was going to be big.

She just hoped that it was also going to be something good.

_Yeah right!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maddie Bishop deserved better.
> 
> I spent so long proofreading this one that I honestly posted it now because I was afraid that I'd just decide to start from scratch. Feel free to comment and let me know whether or not I was right not to (please be gentle).
> 
> Next up is Ryn's first chapter. I promise that it will be much more lighthearted then the last three have been.


	4. Happy Wife, Happy Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryn enjoys her life on land with Maddie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's Ryn's first POV chapter.
> 
> I tried to make it a little more lighthearted and funny, but I'll admit that it's still a chapter that's pretty heavy with introspection in certain places. Don't worry, the action will start to pick up in the next few chapters so just hang in there.

Ryn carefully arranged the row of knick-knacks on their shelf in Helen's shop. She made sure to display them in a way that she knew would immediately catch the attention of any customers who came in. Since she and her people had made them, Helen trusted Ryn to know how best to market this particular product.

It had been Ryn's idea to sell authentic mermaid-made objects and tools in Helen's shop so as to bring in more money. It seemed to be working. Before the sickness came and the town's tourist business started to dry up, the humans who were visiting from other places were completely amazed by the objects she and her people made and spent a lot of money on them. 

Even after years of living on land with them, there were still things about humans that Ryn couldn't understand. Yes these were well-made objects, and Ryn could understand humans being curious about them, but Ryn didn't think she would be willing to pay a lot of money for an old scale scraper or hair comb that had been tossed away when she had been done with it. Not when there was a perfectly good fishing-spear sitting off to the side.

When she shared her musings with Helen, she simply smiled at her and said, "Humans are just odd creatures by nature Ryn. We have a habit of being drawn to and wanting anything new and shiny that we don't already have. Or that we don't even really need, to be honest."

Ryn accepted that explanation. However, when she thought about it, Ryn could understand that philosophy a little. Her people would sometimes collect small objects that interested them and hid them away in little hidden caches from the other members of their tribe. And Ryn herself knew that she was guilty of indulging in similar frivolous human behavior. There was nothing particularly useful or beneficial about her getting her nails painted, but she liked how the colors looked on her and there was definitely something fun and novel about having pink or green fingers and toes.

Ryn heard the bell ring near the front door that let her know someone had just entered the shop. She looked over and saw that it was a young woman. Ryn had seen her before; she worked at the supermarket--she was a local. Ryn kept her gaze focused on the objects on the shelf, watching the woman out of the corner of her eye. She was curious to see whether or not they had a customer or a looker.

The woman eventually made her way to where Ryn was at the mermaid artifact shelf. She tried to appear all casual about it but there was a distinct way in which she moved that gave her away; somewhat hesitant and fearful but also curious and eager.

 _Definitely a looker_ , Ryn thought to herself.

The woman spent some time looking (or pretending to look) at a shelf that displayed a row of stone tablets that had the words and art of her people carved into them. They were very popular sellers.

Ryn could feel the woman's curiosity emanating off of her as she tried not to be too obvious about wanting to see Ryn. Ryn simply continued with organizing the merchandise; pretending like the woman didn't even exist.

Eventually, the woman broke the awkward silence and spoke to Ryn.

"Excuse me. Can you tell me what this one means?" the woman asked her, holding up one of the tablets to show her. The tablet showed a carving of the abstract forms of two of her people entwined together while mating.

"It means 'love'," Ryn told her. The woman let out a small "aww", seemingly enchanted by the translation. Even if it wasn't technically true.

Technically, that carving was her people's word for sex. But Helen and Maddie explained to her that humans wouldn't like it if she said that since they didn't like to talk about sex. Which really confused Ryn because it seemed to be the _only_ thing humans talked about. When she told them that, they both looked at each other in a way that told her that they were struggling to find an explanation, but also that they secretly agreed with her. In the end, they just told her that it would upset _some_ humans who might cause trouble for them. Ryn accepted their explanation and thought of another word to describe the carving that would make sense.

In a way though, it did make sense to say that the carving meant 'love' since it looked like the two figures were holding each other close and kissing each other. Her people did not kiss in the water, but she had kissed Maddie and Ben when they went swimming with her in her true form, and she had realized that they probably looked like that carving when they did it. And when she really thought about it, the only times she herself had sex anymore was when she made love with Maddie--so, in a way, the symbol did mean love.

The woman took the opportunity of the two of them talking for her to get a good look at Ryn. She wasn't out right staring at her in a way that made Ryn uncomfortable, but she was pushing the envelope, and Ryn wouldn't hesitate to hiss at her to get her to stop. She'd show this woman first hand what her people were really like. After all, that was why she was here.

After Tia's attack on the town and all of the other events that preceded it from Ryn first coming onto land to look for her sister, the people of the town began to ask many questions that couldn't be ignored. It didn't help that many of them noticed that all of this started after she came to Bristol Cove.

Ryn knew that many of the townspeople had started to take an increased interest in her over time. She was the mysterious, beautiful, blue-eyed stranger who had showed up out of nowhere and had been seen walking naked through town several times from the water and stealing clothes from clothes lines. A drawing of her face had been on several wanted posters that had been put up by the sheriff, and she had been seen leading around a small group of people who all behaved in a similarly strange manner as she did--and who all had the same piercing blue eyes as her. People also remembered seeing her at the hospital singing to people who had been affected by Tia's attack who later reported feeling better after she did it. And then of course there was the fact that she had very clearly been involved in some kind of three-way love affair (which she now understood was very unusual for humans) with the local prince (who mysteriously disappeared) and the sheriff's daughter (who she was now married to). Honestly, it was no surprise that she was the primary focus of the town's rumor mill.

But once the town council and the newly elected Sheriff Marissa began to focus their own questions about who she was--with no intent on letting up--Ryn, Maddie, Helen, and Xander were at a loss about how to dissuade them. It had been Ben's father who had suggested to them that they tell the town council and the sheriff about her people with the intent of still keeping it a secret from the rest of the town. At first, they all adamantly refused to even think about such an idea--they all reminded him about the Pownall Massacre. But Ted then reminded them about all the deaths and chaos caused by Ryn and her people, as well as by Tia's assault.

He told them that he didn't want a repeat of the past, and that he truly believed that some level of transparency and cooperation between Ryn's people, the humans, and even the hybrids would help to prevent that from happening. He also told them that he wanted to honor his son's memory by fighting for something Ben believed in. They couldn't argue with him on that, but they still weren't sure if they could trust the people of Bristol Cove with the secret. Ryn then thought of Robb's tribe, how the local humans were able to know of them, and they were able to live together in peace (even if they never saw each other). Her own tribe was now coming to land more and more frequently and Ryn knew that if she didn't do something soon to keep the peace, there would be violence again. She agreed to speak to the town council and to Marissa.

It honestly could have gone worse. Maddie, Helen, and Xander explained the entire story to them all, leaving out no detail--no matter how uncomfortable. Of course there had been an uproar when they got to the parts regarding the deaths of Sean, Dale, and Ben and an even greater one when they revealed their role in taking down the drill ship, but that was when Ryn had spoken up. She told them that her people had fought against Tia's army to protect the humans of Bristol Cove. She told them that, while there had been some conflict, her people were able to live peacefully among the humans for weeks after being driven from the ocean by the recent actions of the humans, and that many of them were learning to understand and accept humans better than they used to, in spite of the painful memories of the past. Ryn told the council that the humans needed to do the same thing if they were to avoid future conflict. The past could not be forgotten or just set aside, she knew that, but they could not let themselves be blinded by ignorance to the possibility of a better future. Otherwise, they would just keep going around in circles until one or both sides destroyed each other. Finally, Ryn pointed out that their people once lived together in harmony--Helen and the hybrids were proof of that--and that they can do so again; her love for Ben and Maddie being proof of that as well.

In the end, they were able to sway the council into working with her people and the hybrids towards a more peaceful and cooperative future. The only condition was that, for now, it all continued to remain a secret.

Which naturally meant that the entire town knew by now.

Nobody spoke about it publicly. It was just an open secret, an unconfirmed rumor, that the townspeople would whisper about behind closed doors or when they thought no one else was listening. If anyone was asked directly about it, they would all either shut up immediately or make some kind of joke about it and laugh it off. But if you knew the truth, you could see it clear as day the buzzing energy that had taken over Bristol Cove from the knowledge that the stories about the mermaids were real. Energy that frequently expressed itself as unusual behavior in the local populace.

Like Calvin's boat tours, for example. Originally, the only customers he'd had were gullible tourists and people looking to get drunk on "mermaid mojitos". But before he knew what was happening, he now had tons of local people who were clamoring to take a tour because they (rightfully) believed that he was in on the secret and figured that he could show them real mermaids. Of course he couldn't do that since all of Ryn's people preferred to live deep under the water, away from the surface. But that didn't stop people from wanting to take the tours on the off chance they might spot one or Calvin and Janine from taking their money. They even asked Ryn if she wouldn't mind hanging out on a rock in her true form or swimming near the surface so that people could get a glimpse of her--nothing of course that couldn't easily be explained away as something mundane--and they even promised to give her some of the money they'd get from the tours.

Well…..Helen told Ryn to never pass up an opportunity to make some money on land. And the locals all pretty much knew the truth about her already so Ryn figured, "Why not?"

Maddie had been less than pleased when Ryn told her that she had said yes and spent one of her extended trips to the water posing for photo ops--citing that it would draw way too much attention to themselves. But Ryn could tell that Maddie, in spite of her reservations, was trying not to smile at Ryn being a successful little business woman. Between her job at Helen's shop, her pearl diving, and helping out with Calvin's tours, Ryn was making pretty decent money for herself.

She's also become something of a social media sensation--which was ironic considering Ryn didn't have any social media. People who went on the tours were able to get (grainy) photos and videos of her from a distance which quickly circulated on the internet. Ryn had been told many times that, had the sickness not come and kept away the humans who visited, she probably would have brought in a lot of money for the town as people would come far and wide to try and catch a glimpse of her. It was certainly bringing out the locals. For the tourists and the outsiders, those pictures and videos were simply written off as a carefully staged performance by an actress wearing a fake fin or a dolphin breaching the surface of the water (which was what everyone involved wanted them to think). But to the townspeople who were starting to take notice of her, it seemed to be the final piece of evidence they needed to confirm their suspicions.

She was the mermaid of Bristol Cove.

Of course, none of the humans were bold enough to actually say anything outright to her or about her. There was still no concrete evidence and nobody wanted to be the fool who publicly tried to accuse some random woman (much less Maddie Bishop’s pleasant, if a little peculiar, wife) of actually being a mermaid. Nobody wanted to risk that kind of social humiliation. Of course that didn’t stop people from being foolish. 

Ryn didn’t mind the funny looks she’d get from people at the Anchor or in the supermarket (okay, maybe she somewhat minded the very unfriendly stink-eyes she got from a few people); she could tolerate them. What she wouldn’t tolerate was being drenched head-to-toe with a bucket of water by what Maddie called “a couple of frat boy douchebags”. She and Maddie had been at a small party that Jerry was having at the motel after they got back from their honeymoon. It was during the last time that the town had held celebrations before the sickness came--not the first one but the second one that the people said was being caused by the hairy little human-like animals--after she had started helping Calvin with his tours and people got all excited about the pictures that were being taken of her. Before she got drenched, she could faintly hear one of them shouting something about a “wet t-shirt”. At the time, Ryn had been so angry--and so shocked-- by what they did that she didn’t even bother hissing at the foolish humans in question to scare them away. She just gave the two of them a _look_ that definitely would have put any unruly male in his place, regardless of species. 

They meekly tried to play it off as having too much to drink and apologized but one look at the disappointment in their faces at seeing nothing happen told her all she needed to know. They were hoping that she would change. Thankfully, it wasn’t ocean water that they had soaked her with, so nothing happened. She didn’t change in the slightest. Maddie had been certain that they were going to see similar antics from other people after that, but in reality the complete opposite happened. In fact, Ryn would say that the incident was actually beneficial for her in the long run.

Once the story about how she had been drenched spread through town, an unspoken agreement seemed to have been made among the people. Nobody was going to treat their mermaid or her wife with such disrespect! Now, everyone was very protective of her (and by extension Maddie), making sure that she wasn’t bothered too much by outsiders or anyone who was less-than-friendly. The staring still went on but it was now in a way that was much less overt and unfriendly, and people who weren’t very familiar with her still tread lightly around her (which was honestly more acceptable to her since it was similar to how she was treated as a leader by her own people), but everyone else now treated her like she was one of their own. As if she had always been a part of the town.

The woman who had come into the shop to check out Ryn wound up buying the tablet carving and (with a little prodding from Ryn) a t-shirt. Helen had told her that if people were going to come in here to ogle at Ryn, they better pay the price of admission by buying something from the shop. Ryn didn’t really see a problem with that. It just meant more money for her.

Ryn rang up the woman’s purchases and bid her goodbye and nice day. She was eager to finish up because her shift was almost over and she wanted to get home quickly so that she could get ready for tonight.

Tonight was date night.

Every Friday night, she and Maddie went out together to do something fun. The sickness forced them to stay at home a lot and, as much as Ryn loved spending alone time with Maddie, being cooped up for weeks was getting to them both. At first, Maddie insisted that it wasn’t safe to go out; they had to keep their distance from other people. But Ryn had been able to convince her that they could go out and stay safe--they just had to be creative about what they did and where they went. It helped that she had been using what Maddie called her “begging mermaid eyes” at the time. She knew that Maddie couldn’t resist her when she did that.

 _You don’t need to Sing to get humans to do what you want_ , Ryn had thought to herself at the time with a smug little grin on her face.

Of course Maddie was just as good at making “begging human eyes” at Ryn--which she found equally hard to resist--so she really couldn’t talk.

She heard the sound of Helen coming downstairs from her apartment. When she came into the shop and saw that it was empty of customers, she looked over at Ryn behind the counter.

“I can lock up for the night Ryn. You can head on home; I know that you and Maddie have plans for tonight,” Helen said to her.

“Thank you, Helen.”

“You two going to movie night tonight?” Helen asked her as she walked Ryn to the front door. Ryn nodded and told her that, yes they were, "Well then, I guess I'll see you there".

The owner of the local movie theater--a nice old man named Eliot who always smiled kindly at Ryn whenever he saw her--came up with the idea of moving his business outdoors to the old, abandoned drive-in after he had to close up the theater for the pandemic. He told everybody that he wanted to do this, not just for his business, but so that everyone could still come together as a community to do something fun. He argued that since they didn’t really have the sickness in Bristol Cove, and because the town’s population was much smaller now after so many people had left and because so few visited from outside now, he could put together something that was manageable and that would be safe for everybody to go to and get out of the house. The council seemed to agree and allowed him to round up some volunteers to help get the place back up and running.

Ryn left Helen’s shop and began to make her way down the street towards her and Maddie’s apartment. There were a few people in masks who were out and about, going about their business, but not many and almost no cars driving around. Ryn wasn’t wearing a mask herself (she never did, which was something Maddie constantly fussed at her about) since she was certain that she couldn’t catch human diseases, but she still kept her distance from people for Maddie’s sake on the off chance that she might be able to spread it.

Ryn made a stop at the grocery store to buy the ingredients she needed to make dinner for tonight. They were going to eat dinner first at home before going to the movie and Ryn had insisted on cooking for Maddie tonight. She had an idea for a new recipe for macaroni and cheese that she wanted to try out--she just hoped the store had the good sardines that she liked. She also stopped at a flower stand to buy Maddie a bouquet of the purple ones that she liked--irises, she and Ben called them. Ben had once told her that they were Maddie's favorites when the two of them spent the day walking through town together while Maddie was away visiting her aunt. The memory of that day brought a sad smile of longing to Ryn’s face as she thought back on it--wishing she could have moments like that again with Ben. Ryn hoped that the flowers would make Maddie smile and feel happy, along with their date tonight.

Something was bothering Maddie; Ryn could sense it through their connection. Despite the fact that she had only Sung to Maddie once and had been healed just a few days later, there was still a link between the two of them. It was very faint, much weaker than the one that had existed between her and Ben, but it was still there. She knew that it would always be there. From time to time she could faintly pick up on Maddie’s moods--especially when she was experiencing strong emotions. For the past few days she could sense concern and worry from Maddie. Ryn had asked her what it was and Maddie tried to brush it off by telling her that she was fine. Ryn didn’t want to press her too much if it was something that Maddie didn’t want to talk about, but she still hoped that Maddie would eventually open up to her about it.

Ryn put the flowers in a vase with some water when she got home and started making dinner for her and Maddie. Ryn still enjoyed the pure taste of raw seafood, but she had to admit that human food wasn’t too bad. And there was something about the art of cooking food, of experimenting with different ideas and flavors, that she found surprisingly relaxing and enjoyable--except for when she made a mistake and their apartment nearly caught fire. She still couldn’t understand what it was about tinfoil that caused it to explode in the microwave, but she understood now that it wasn’t a good idea--third time’s the charm. She had considered the possibility of getting a job where she could cook food for the humans and for her people when they came to land. When she had shared this idea with Maddie, she had been very supportive of it--but gently told her that she might need to open her own restaurant if she wanted to serve her own recipes. Ryn didn’t see a problem with that.

Ryn heard the sounds of keys turning a lock and of the apartment door being opened: Maddie’s home. She looked over her shoulder to see Maddie walking into the kitchen area of their apartment. Maddie’s eyes drifted over to the irises sitting in the vase on the counter; a smile began to form on her face at the sight of them that immediately sent a flutter through Ryn’s chest. Even now after years of the two of them being together, the sight of Maddie smiling never failed to make Ryn’s heart skip a beat. Not even the sun could compare to the brightness of one of Maddie’s big happy smiles.

“Hey baby,” Maddie greeted Ryn, walking up to her and leaning down to give her a peck on the lips which Ryn reciprocated.

“Hey,” Ryn greeted back. Maddie peeked over her shoulder to get a look at what she was cooking--her gaze somewhat nervous when she saw the mac and cheese. Ryn knew that Maddie didn’t always like what she made, and that she got nervous whenever Ryn experimented with something new, but she always tried her food anyway and was honest with her about whether or not she liked it. “Food is almost ready,” Ryn told her.

“Awesome! I’ll set the table”, Maddie responded, “How was your day?”

“It was good, slow. A lady came in to look at me.”

“Ugh. She better have bought something! I hate it when people do that; treat you like some kind of zoo exhibit”, Maddie grumbled, irritated on behalf of her wife.

“It’s okay”, Ryn assured her, “She was nice to me and she bought a shirt and a rock with the words of my people on it.” Ryn knew Maddie was still worried about everyone in town knowing about her; she worried about it as well. But a part of her was glad that they didn’t have to constantly lie and keep secrets anymore. She still didn’t advertise what she was in a way that was obvious, but she was done hiding her true self.

“I am excited about tonight”, Ryn said to her, trying to gently change the subject.

Maddie got the hint and redirected the conversation, “Yeah, me too. I think they’re doing an 80’s night tonight-- _Goonies_ and _The Breakfast Club_ I believe. Should be fun.” Eliot always showed two movies back to back: first a family friendly one at 7:00 and then one for more mature viewers afterwards.

The two of them ate their dinner mostly in silence, exchanging pleasant small talk every few minutes. Ryn made grilled chicken (no marshmallows) and green beans to go with the macaroni. She couldn't help but beam with pride when Maddie truthfully admitted that she enjoyed all the food. After they finished eating and washed the dishes, they headed out to go to the drive-in. On their way downstairs, Ryn noticed something on her wrist. A small patch of skin that looked a little cracked and felt rough to the touch. She knew what it meant.

She’d have to go back to the water soon.

*********************************************************

When they arrived at the drive-in, there was already a line of cars waiting to enter the lot--along with a line of people who had walked there and were going to sit on the chairs and benches that had also been set up as an alternative. Everyone who wasn’t in a car was wearing masks and gloves and Ryn could see Xander and Annie working together with a few of Eliot’s employees to direct traffic and make sure that people were maintaining space with each other in the line. That had been one of the conditions the town council had made when they agreed to these movie nights; the sheriff's department would have to be there to oversee that people were staying safe and following social distancing rules. The people had frequently been warned that, if they weren’t going to follow the rules, then they would be better off staying home and watching Netflix. They were also warned that, if any problems were reported, everything would be shut down. Ryn remembered Maddie telling her about people getting angry at having to wear masks and causing problems during the first sickness because they didn't want to follow the rules.

But now, with this second sickness and all the devastation it was causing, nobody was complaining about masks anymore. In fact, many people had taken to carrying long objects like umbrellas, sticks or long rulers to measure the space between themselves and other people. Ryn wasn't too worried about getting sick; she and Maddie both agreed that it was unlikely she could catch the virus from a human (or that she could spread it to others). But what did worry her--no, what terrified her--was the thought of Maddie catching it. She knew that most humans who caught it died a few days later--and that it wasn’t peaceful.

So far, the sickness had not spread to Bristol Cove. But if it did, the first thing Ryn would do would be to take Maddie and herself up to the Pownall Cabin and keep themselves there until she was certain it was safe to come back. Even if they wound up being the only two people left in town. And as much as Ryn despised the thought of having to do it, she would wear a mask and gloves every time she walked outside the door to make absolutely sure there would be no chance that she could give it to her. Ryn had already lost her sister and the man she loved. She was not going to lose Maddie.

Unsettled by such a thought, Ryn looked over at Maddie in the driver’s seat next to her as they pulled up to the gate--mentally reassuring herself that Maddie was not in harm's way. Sensing Ryn's gaze, Maddie turned her head to look over at Ryn. Maddie gave her a warm smile that certainly helped to reassure Ryn that her beloved was safe. Ryn smiled back at her and then tapped her lips with her pointer finger. Understanding the meaning of Ryn’s request, Maddie leaned over to the passenger side to give her a brief, chaste kiss.

 _Kissing Maddie like this is much easier than when standing up_ , Ryn thought to herself, with a hint of amusement. 

She loved Maddie with all her heart but why did she have to be so tall? Whenever they kissed, Ryn practically had to drag Maddie down by the neck so that she could reach her. And Ben had been even _worse_! He had been so tall that, even if he really leaned down for her, Ryn needed to stand up on her toes to reach his lips. She once told the both of them how frustrating it was for her, trying her hand at playful teasing for the first time, and they had both responded quickly with mock-indignation by pointing out how short she was and how difficult it was for them to have to constantly lean down to kiss _her_. She knew, of course, that they were just being playful with her the same as she was with them, and that they didn’t have any problem with her short stature whatsoever. They also knew that she wasn’t actually bothered by their height either--she loved both of her tall humans just the way they were and she wouldn't have changed who they were for anything. 

"Hey you two, you have to stay six feet apart, remember!” they heard Xander playfully yelling at them from a distance as he came up to their car to direct them towards a spot. Maddie’s only response was to stick her middle finger up at him. Ryn heard the sound of Xander laughing at the gesture. He came over to Maddie’s window which she had already rolled down prior to pulling up to him.

“You guys doing alright?” he asked them. His voice was muffled by his own mask.

“Yeah, we’re good. Happy to be out of the house” Maddie told him, “How about you? Marissa keeping you guys safe?” Maddie had expressed concern for Xander many times over the past few years. His job as a deputy meant that he had to help out with protecting people from the sickness--which meant that he was at a higher risk of getting it.

“Yeah, we’re doing alright. Every day that we don’t get a report of people coughing up blood is a win, you know.”

“Mhm. I know what you mean,” Maddie said.

Ryn saw Xander’s eyes look past her and she followed his gaze to look to her left. She saw that more people had shown up on foot and gotten in line--Annie was already working to space them out but there were more than just she could handle by herself.

“Listen, I’d love to stay and talk, but I should probably go and help Annie out before she gets mobbed. Sorry.”

“It’s okay Xan,” Maddie reassured him.

“Okay, yes,” Ryn said, offering up her own reassurance. Xander nodded at the two of them and glanced behind them for anymore cars--there were none--before he went over to help Annie.

“You know, I really appreciate what the old man is trying to do for everybody. I really do. But part of me wishes that he could just embrace the home theater experience, if only for the sake of all our sanities,” Xander said as he pointed out a spot for them to drive-in to, “I’ll catch you guys later.”

“Bye Xander!” “Bye-Bye”

Maddie paid the $5 price of admission to one of Eliot’s people and then pulled into the empty spot Xander had shown her. Once the car was put in park and their radio was hooked up to the little speaker device outside, the two of them got out and moved to the backseat so that they could semi-comfortably snuggle up together under a blanket while they watched the movie. It also made it easier for the two of them to fool around a bit if they got bored or distracted. Of course they had to remember to restrain themselves from going too far since there were usually cars parked right next to them on either side and they knew that they would be kicked out if they got caught. Of course, that risk factor sometimes got them even more excited and they wouldn’t hesitate to push the envelope if they thought they could get away with it (and they usually did). 

While they were waiting for the film to start, Ryn felt at the skin on her wrist to see if the dryness was spreading--it wasn’t, but she knew that it would soon.

****************************************

_“Any questions?”_

_“Yeah, I got a question. Does Barrry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?”_

Ryn could hear the faint sound of people laughing at the joke. She didn’t get it so she didn’t feel the urge to laugh--or to try and pretend to laugh (she had been told many times that it was best if she didn’t try to force it).

Of course she and Maddie were more preoccupied with each other at the moment than they were with the movie. She had already seen this one with Maddie and most of the scenes they liked were later on in the movie. They both decided that it would be more fun to pass the time until then with some kissing.

The two of them were lying down in the backseat--still covered by the blanket-- and trying their best to conceal themselves. They had a little more privacy than before since they were more towards the back and the cars on either side of them (both containing families with kids) had left after _The Goonies_ was over, so they felt more confident that they could get away with some "making out" as Maddie put it. 

Maddie was laying on top of Ryn, grasping at the thigh that was wrapped around her waist before sliding that same hand up Ryn's torso to squeeze and palm at one of her breasts. Ryn let out a small, quiet moan at the sensation and ran her fingers through Maddie's thick, curly hair, tugging on it to try and ground herself in the moment but also so as to hold Maddie closer to her while they kissed. She knew that they would probably have to stop soon before they got too carried away. There were still a lot of people around and they would probably notice if their car started rocking back and forth.

But she wasn't going to be the one to stop them right now. Right now, she just wanted to get as much of Maddie as she could get before she went back to the water. It would be a long time before they might have the chance to be this close again.

She knew that what Robb had spoken of was true. One day, she would not be able to change form anymore. For the past few years she was being more measured in her transformations than she was before. She stayed on land until the last possible moment, even if it meant she had to go through the full effects of degrading. Recently, the breakdown process had become slower--her body taking a longer time to reach the point where she struggled to move or breath from when the first signs appeared, and Helen's special lotion had become much more effective at delaying it--so she was less worried about drawing it out. And when she finally had to go back to the water, she stayed there for months at a time instead of a few days or weeks so that she could fully satisfy her need to hunt and swim and be with her family before going back home to Maddie on land. It was a system that worked, and she was still able to see Maddie from time to time when they met in the shallower coves where they would swim together for a while, but the long separation time was hard on the both of them. And they knew that it was only delaying the inevitable. It was getting harder and harder for her to transform every time she went into or left the water (there had even been a few instances where the changing had nearly gone wrong and Maddie had to scramble to save her) and she could sense that her time to make a choice would be coming soon. Perhaps she might have a few more years worth of transformations if they continued to use this system, but the choice would still come.

Land or Ocean. Her people or Maddie.

She had already made that choice a long time ago.

She loved being in the ocean, it was where she came from, and she knew that (no matter how much she assimilated or was accepted) she would always be more comfortable among her own people than among the humans.

But if she chose to stay in the ocean forever, she could never truly be with Maddie again. They could visit each other in the water the way they were doing now and she knew that their love would never go away. But there would always be a gulf separating the two of them. A pain in their hearts that they might learn to live with but would never truly heal.

Just like the pain of losing Ben.

Ryn had never truly been able to let go of Ben and she knew that Maddie felt the same way. Like with the loss of her sister (or of Maddie with her father) they had learned to live with the sadness that had filled the place in their hearts that belonged to Ben. But it didn't change the fact that a part of her would always be sad that he wasn't with them.

The thought of losing Maddie forever, as well as Ben, was too much for Ryn to bear. She knew that it would destroy her inside. But as horrible as the idea of living with her own personal loss on her own filled her with dread, the idea of knowing that Maddie was out there and suffering as she was at the total loss of her loves, and that the two of them _could_ be together but chose not to be, was so much worse.

No. If she had to choose between the ocean and Maddie, she would always choose Maddie. The ocean may have been where she began, but her home was wherever Maddie was.

Her people had long ago accepted that she would stay on land with her human mates...mate. She knew that and she could accept it as well.

But she was uncertain of what her children would want.

Hope, Eva, and Little Ben were all growing fast and would soon be old enough to swim on their own--to join with one of the packs that made up their tribe. They would not need her or Maddie to take care of them--just as her sister's daughter did not need her mother when she had finally joined the pack. But just because they were grown did not mean that they would not wish to see her, to swim and hunt with her--especially her daughters.

Did they want her to stay in the water? Did they want to be on land with their mothers? Would they be willing to come and see her and Maddie on land if they decided to stay in the ocean? How many times could they come and see the two of them before they had to make their own choice?

She had shared these thoughts before with Maddie when they had discussed their future together. Maddie understood Ryn's dilemma--she had felt similar feelings--but she also pointed out that, by the time all the babies were grown (which would be very soon), they would have their own lives to live and their own choices to make that weren't up to Ryn or Maddie. Maddie also reminded her that the two of them were still young by the standards of both their peoples and that they still had their whole futures ahead of them.

The animal in Ryn, who had already lived through such a life as her children, knew that Maddie was right. She loved her babies and she wanted to see that they all grew to be strong and capable survivors. But once they were fully grown, their lives were their own and she must then return her focus towards her own survival. She and her sister did not swim with the same pack as their mother and Cami did not always swim with her mother when she had grown. That was the way of their people. That was the way of the ocean--they came together and split apart with the changing of the tides.

But the human in Ryn, the human who had already experienced so much loss, just wanted to keep her family together.

In the end she knew that Maddie was right, and the choice would have to be made by her children and her children alone. Until then, all she could do was to delay her final change long enough for her to be able to share the experience of living with them in the water.

The two of them paused briefly in their heated kissing to catch their breaths, panting heavily while they stared into each other's eyes. During that quiet moment, Ryn just took the time to admire the beauty of the woman she loved. Maddie hadn't braided her hair back today so it just fanned out in a huge mass of dark curls that curtained around their faces as she lay on top of Ryn. It reminded Ryn of the hair some of her people had (like her sister’s or her sister’s daughter’s or Viv’s) and Ryn smiled as she thought about the times that she and Maddie had swam together underwater. Maddie's hair had flowed and drifted in the currents in a way that, for a second, made Ryn think that she was looking at one of her own. Maddie certainly moved in a way that made her seem like she belonged in the water--for a human of course.

But it wasn't just Maddie's physical beauty that took Ryn's breath away, but the beauty of her spirit as well. It drew her in, and captivated her in ways that were impossible to describe with words of any kind, spoken or signed. But there was one way that Ryn knew that she could use to express all her love and desire for Maddie without saying a word. She had felt the urge to do it many times in the past and she had fought with it then just as she fought with it now.

She fought the urge to Sing.

Ryn knew how terrible of an idea that was; what had happened to Ben and Maddie after she Sang to the both of them had proven that, but she couldn’t help it. The urge was always there. From the first moment she had Sung to Ben on the night they met, she wanted to Sing to him again and again. She could feel it bringing them closer together, amplifying their growing feelings for each other like a tidal wave building in strength as it made its way to shore. And like a tidal wave, it nearly destroyed the both of them when it finally crashed over them. She knew in her heart that Ben had truly loved her the way he loved Maddie (and she loved him in the same way), that their love was good, and that the Song did not create their feelings for each other. But she understood that it also hurt his mind in many ways, that the gentle feelings of their growing love for each other were overpowered and made into something powerful and dangerous for the both of them.

Many times she wondered what might have happened, how things might have been different, if she hadn’t Sung to Ben that first night. If they had been able to fall in love naturally as they both had been able to with Maddie. She knew that it certainly would have saved them a great deal of heartache. But she also wondered what might have happened if she Sang to both Ben and Maddie after she had already fallen in love with them--if she had Sang to them both deliberately out of love, and not because she was confused or uncertain.

When she Sang to Ben after Sean died, she did it because she loved him and she wanted to make him feel better. It worked (too well) and it had made her feel so good and so close to him at the time. And when she Sang to Maddie to make the recording, all she was thinking about at the time was how much she loved Maddie--she could feel it weaving its way into the fabric of the Song as it became her sole point of focus. She knew that Maddie couldn’t hear her because she was wearing headphones at the time, but she could see the look in Maddie’s eyes that told her that she could feel something, and Maddie had confirmed her suspicion when they spoke to each other about it later. She said that it had felt different from when Ryn Sang to her in the forest while she was lost to the stress hormones; similar, but different.

But as much as she wanted to believe that her Song could be something good, that it could bring her closer to her loves, she wasn’t willing to take that risk. Not if it meant that it could hurt Maddie’s mind in any way. So she stopped herself from Singing again and just savored this quiet moment with Maddie. Finally, she found the words to express her feelings for Maddie that she had struggled to find before in her desire to Sing,

“I love you, Maddie.”

Maddie just smiled at Ryn’s confession. They had said that to each other many times, and every time they did, every time they heard it from the other, it never failed to elicit that same feeling of want and happiness they had felt that first time Ryn told Maddie that she was love.

“I love you too, Ryn,” Maddie told her.

They both silently agreed that it was time for them to cool off a bit and go back to watching the movie. They sat up and readjusted themselves so that they were both sitting comfortably in the back seat of Maddie’s jeep, under their blanket. 

The movie had gotten to the part where two of the human boys (the “athlete” and the “criminal”) were challenging each other and threatening to fight. They both were making complete fools of themselves trying to act like they were the alphas of their little group. Clearly, males were the same whether on land or in the water. But what Ryn couldn't understand was why the two girls didn't put them in their place, or why the males didn't listen to them. She would never tolerate such unruly disrespect among her tribe.

This movie, _The Breakfast Club_ , and others like it that took place in what humans called “highschool” always fascinated Ryn. Maddie had assured her that what she saw in movies and TV was nothing like how it was in real life (mostly), and that it was probably a good thing that she never had to go through it.

Still, Ryn couldn’t help but feel curious. What if she had come to land when she was younger and went to school? Would she like it? Would she still have met Ben and Maddie? Would they have fallen in love? Maddie had told her that she and Ben weren’t together back then, and that they didn’t really know each other either, so it wasn’t likely. But Ryn liked to believe that they would. Maybe it would be different than how it happened to them before, but Ryn believed that the three of them were always meant to be together--it was the will of the tides.

She laced her fingers with Maddie’s as they held hands under the blanket and rested her head on Maddie’s shoulder. Yes, this was her home right here--with Maddie. If the choice was between a life in the ocean and a life on land with Maddie, Ryn would always choose Maddie without hesitation. She knew that she would never regret that choice.

Her only regret was that Ben couldn’t be here with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We all know Ryn's stubborn little ass would refuse to wear a mask.
> 
> Hope ya'll enjoyed this one. Feel free to leave comments--I love hearing feedback. Next chapter we meet back up with Ben to see what he's been up to.


	5. Driftwood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben adjusts to his new home and comes face to face with powerful forces in the process.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this one took so long. I just got a new job and I've been busy for the past couple of weeks settling in.
> 
> And if I'm being completely honest, I think my Muse has been ghosting me for the past few weeks, because this chapter was an absolute BITCH to write. I actually rewrote the entire middle section of this chapter because I changed my mind on how I wanted it to go and it actually led to me rewriting the last bit of Chapter 2 so that it would flow a little better, so you might want to go back and read the last part of that chapter before you read this one. I didn't change too much so it hopefully shouldn't throw ya'll off too much.
> 
> Hope ya'll enjoy it.

_Over…..Under…...Over….Under…..Over……Under…...._

He sat on the ground with his back to a palm tree--the swaying palms helped to shade him from the sun’s heat as it beat down on him from above. The sound of the waves of the bay in front of him provided a nonstop source of white noise which helped him to relax while he worked. It also helped to provide a steady subconscious rhythm for his hands to follow along with: _Woosh…..Over…...Crash…...Under……._

He paused briefly to inspect his work with his hands--relying on his sense of touch to inform him whether or not he'd made a mistake.

 _Stop…...Feel…….Still maintaining its proper structure?…...Yes…..Back to it……_ , he thought to himself.

Off in the distance, to his right, he could hear the discordant barking of the fur seals as they lounged on their end of the beach--near the rocky cliffs and escarpments--and competed with each other for the best spots to sun themselves. The harsh cries of the seabirds as they circled overhead sounded like taunts or encouraging cheers that were being directed towards the noisy beasts as they quarrelled.

 _Over…...Under…..Over….Under….Over…....Und-......._ , his mental rhythm was suddenly interrupted by a familiar tune.

_Oooooohooooooo……._

_Oh no, not again….._

His hands stopped what they were doing--the small, crude, conical basket he was weaving out of twigs and small vines was forgotten for a moment as the Song began to play through his mind again. He shook his head vigorously, trying to cast it out of his head like water from his ears before he attempted to return to his weaving.

_Over…...Under…..Over….Under….Ov-_

_HoooooooOoooooo……._

Now the images appeared in his mind again--they always came with the Song. The images of _her_. 

The woman who’s name he still couldn’t remember. Who’s face seemed familiar but, for the life of him, he could not remember who she was. Whenever the Song came to him, he saw her in his mind’s eye in perfect clarity: those piercing blue eyes, those perfect cheekbones, that long dark hair. Her beauty was indescribably ethereal and unnervingly inhuman--he felt both drawn to her and terrified of her at the same time. Why was he afraid of her?

Distracted by these intrusive thoughts, he missed the next loop in the weave. He ran his fingers over the side of the basket, trying to refind his place, and had great difficulty in doing so. He couldn’t see what he was working on and the Song made it hard for him to focus--which just made an already laborious and frustrating task even moreso. He wove the end of the twig into what he thought was the proper space, but a second feel revealed that he had actually missed a step and he’d have to backtrack.

_Ooooooooohooooooo……_

“Arrrrgggghhhh!” he yelled out in frustration and distress.

He finally gave up after he made the same mistake two more times and violently threw the stupid little basket as far away from him as possible. He faintly heard the soft _pffft_ of the basket hitting the sand off in the distance, but he had no idea where it actually landed--he didn’t care. Right now, his only focus was to grab tightly at the sides of his head and hold on as the Song played endlessly through his brain. It grew and grew in strength until it was practically screaming in his head and he couldn’t form a single coherent thought. 

The Song itself didn’t actually hurt him in any way--quite the opposite. At first, it made him feel like he was floating on air, which wasn’t so bad. But it also filled him with an intense feeling of want. A want that he couldn’t satisfy in any way because, in his soul, he knew that the Song he was hearing right now, in his head, was just a memory, an echo of something real that he’d heard before, but he didn’t know how or where he’d heard it. 

His mind wanted, no, needed--desperately needed--something that he couldn’t get, and it was coming apart at the seams from the denial. He often tried to focus on something else to take his mind off of the Song, but it was never of no use because--no matter how hard he tried--it just. Wouldn’t. _STOP!_

_HooooooOooooooo........_

All he could really do was to grit his teeth, endure the pain, and wait until the Song (and the intense need that came with it) passed through him. 

Thankfully, the Song wasn’t a constant presence in his mind--it came and went at random intervals--which meant that he got an occasional reprieve from the madness. Unfortunately, he also knew that meant an attack could hit him at any time, and he could never predict when it might occur. Because of this, his mind was unable to build any kind of real tolerance, or prepare any kind of measurable defense, towards the Song and its effects, and the constant fear of the next attack was slowly driving him insane.

Finally, after what felt like hours (but in reality was probably just a few minutes), the Song began to grow softer and softer in his brain. As it receded, he was able to slowly reclaim control of his mind to the point where he could now gather his thoughts enough to focus on something else other than the Song. Something simple and easy that could distract him away from the desperate feeling of hunger in his soul that the Song created:

_100, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95……._

_Ooooooooo………...Hoooooo……..._

As he counted down to one, the Song continued to grow weaker and weaker in his mind. If he was lucky, it might be fully gone before he got to fifty--which would mean that there might not be anymore attacks today. “Might” being the operant word.

_Hooooooo……..Oooo……...oooo……..._

_55, 54, 53, 52, 51, 50, 49, 48….._

_............................................_

Silence.

Finally, his mind was (somewhat) at peace again--until the next time at least.

Now that he was able to collect his thoughts in a more rational manner, he realized that he’d thrown his basket away. It was probably too far away for him to find on his own by feeling around on the ground, especially since--in his confused and agitated state--he couldn’t precisely tell where the general direction of the noise the basket had made when it hit the ground came from, nor could he precisely remember which direction he had thrown it. The basket could be anywhere on the beach and he honestly didn't feel like spending hours crawling around on his hands and knees, on the sand and rocks, trying to find it.

That left him with 3 options: 

1) Start a new basket with the extra vines and twigs he still had--which he honestly wasn't feeling up to doing anymore. 

2) Sit next to this stupid tree for who knows how long and wait around to see if Crusoe finally came back and he could get the basket for him. 

3) Go back to the cave now and wait around inside for the rest of the day until Crusoe came back.

He was tired of waiting around until Crusoe got back--and he's especially tired of sitting around and doing nothing all day but listening to beach sounds and waiting for the next time when the Song decided to screw with his head! 

Of course, there was always a fourth option for him to consider: he could go out and explore the island a bit by himself.

He knew that that was a _very_ stupid idea. The chances of him getting lost and stranded out in the forest were astronomically high, and the chances of him dying horribly out there were even higher. But he had to admit that it would still be a nice break in the monotony of the past two weeks.

All he’s done since he first washed up here is sit around the camp and learn how to weave that stupid little basket. The most physical activity that he's gotten was from walking up and down the beach and the little path Crusoe had cleared for him from the cave to the beach.

Two weeks of the same mindless routine. Between that and the Song, he was definitely going to go insane.

His constant boredom certainly wasn’t helped by the fact that his host had been gone for the past three days on his little "scientific expedition" to the interior of the island--leaving him without anyone to talk to or to guide him around in his new environment.

_Who leaves a blind man all by himself!?_

Of course, he had learned very quickly that his new "friend" wasn't exactly all there in the head--something that he had even freely admitted to.

_That makes two of us I guess._

He thought back to that first conversation with his fellow castaway after he'd first woken up.

*********************************************

"Wheerrrreee…..arrrrre….weeeee?" he growled, his fearsome sounding tone doing a good job of hiding his fear.

"We're on an island.” the Man said to him in a short, curt voice.

"Whaaaat……...islaaaaand?" he asked, trying to remember what an island was and struggling to get the words out of his parched throat. 

But the Man didn’t answer him. 

For several minutes, neither of them said anything. All he could hear was the shuffling sounds of the Man moving around in the “cave.” He could hear the noises of the Man’s movements echoing around him; the sounds bouncing off the walls. Out of nowhere, he heard a series of sharp, quick clicking noises a short distance ahead of him. It sounded like two rocks being scraped together.

_Click, clack, click, clack….….._

There was suddenly a soft _fzzt_ and the clicking sounds ceased almost as soon as they began. There was then a series of short, gentle sounds like air blowing forcibly and the crackling gradually grew louder and louder. He could feel a distinct change in temperature in the air around him, which increased as the volume of the crackling increased. The thick, heady smell that he picked up on earlier was starting to get stronger now and seemed to be emanating from the general direction of the warm crackling.

He heard the shuffling sounds of the Man’s footsteps come towards him again and he instinctively curled into himself in an attempt to make it so that he’d hopefully appear less vulnerable to a sudden attack. It probably didn’t work, but it helped to make him feel like he was a little less vulnerable at least.

In the prolonged silence, he could feel the eyes of the Man on him, looking at him, assessing him. He knew what the Man was doing because he was doing the exact same thing with his other senses in the absence of his sight. But more than that, there was a kind of instinct that he was feeling--one that made the hairs on the back of his neck and on his arms stand up. He just _knew_ that the Man was looking at him; he could feel it in his bones.

This intuition didn’t do much to comfort his already frayed nerves--there was something seriously disconcerting about knowing that someone was watching you and not being able to see them.

In an attempt to break the tension, he held his hand out to the man--the one that held the hairy little half ball he’d been drinking water from--in a silent request for him to refill it. He felt the Man take it out of his hand and heard the sound of him filling it up with more water. After it was given back to him, he drank the small mouthful of water within it in one gulp. He could feel the water soothing his parched and irritated throat, but there was something else that he could also feel. It felt like a strange tickling sensation in the tissues of his neck. It didn’t hurt and, as it went on, he could actually feel the irritation steadily begin to diminish.

He decided to test his voice out again, to see if his ability to talk had been restored.

“Where are we?” he once again asked the man in a raspy voice--still not quite healed.

After yet another brief moment of silence, the Man finally spoke again.

“A place where our kind do not belong,” was all he said.

 _Getting this guy to give me answers is like pulling teeth!_ , he thought to himself. He had no clue where that phrase came from or how he knew it--it just popped in his head.

“Our kind?” he inquired.

“People. Human beings.”

“Well, then, if we don’t belong here-”

The Man interrupted him and finished the question he was about to ask,

“Then why am I here?”

He just nodded his head in reply, which felt strange since he couldn’t see whether or not the Man could see him nod.

“I am here,” he heard the Man say in a careful, measured voice. “Because of another man’s ambition, as well as my own.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked.

But the Man didn’t answer him. Another moment of silence fell between them and it was honestly starting to give him anxiety. He knew the Man was there, but the constant silent periods and the fact that the Man wasn’t making any other kinds of noises made it difficult for him to pinpoint his location or his actions in the space around him--which made him feel all the more isolated and vulnerable in his current state.

But he wasn’t allowed to wallow in his discomfort for too long because the Man soon spoke up again,

“The only thing that you need to know about me, is that I have been stranded here for a long, long time. Like Crusoe on his island.”

He had no clue who “Crusoe” was (or what an “island” was) so he wasn’t sure if the comparison was supposed to be a good one or a bad one.

“Crusoe” continued to speak to him, “As for this place……..In all the long time I have been here, I have learned a great deal about this place and seen many things………..things, beyond the comprehension of mortal men……......things which we were not meant to know…….”

Crusoe’s voice had taken on a strange, almost detached, quality to it--like he was talking more to himself than to anyone around him. As if his mind was wandering into places where he easily got lost. He couldn’t help but wonder what the man had seen that had affected him so.

“I can see where your thoughts are taking you,” Crusoe suddenly spoke directly at him. “Do not think that you will be safe from these things, from this evil, just because you cannot see them. They will still find ways to hurt you, to corrupt you--without you ever even knowing that it is happening. By the time you do realize what is happening to you, it will be far too late.”

For some reason, the words Crusoe just said to him rang a bell of familiarity in his mind. He’d heard someone say something similar to him before.

“And there is still the matter of survival at hand: of eat or be eaten, kill or be killed. You will still have to face all of that, along with the great evil that rules this island, and I assure you, even if you had your eyes, in this place, it would be a challenge beyond what most men are capable of enduring.

“So tell me, Driftwood, do you wish to endure all of that? Are you willing to commit yourself to staying alive, and to keeping me alive? I will help you and I will teach you how to do it, even in your blinded state, but do not think that I will allow you to become a burden on myself and my own survival. If push comes to shove, I will abandon you to your fate, or I will make use of you in other ways……”

He didn’t like the sound of that last statement. The way Crusoe said it, it sounded as if he was imagining a state in which he was no longer a person, but a resource.

“Well?” Crusoe asked, expecting an answer. “Driftwood” knew that there was only one possible response,

“Okay, yes.”

************************************************

 _If there really is evil and danger on this island, then it clearly doesn't live around here_ , Driftwood thought to himself, back in the present, as his thoughts returned towards his perpetual state of boredom.

He decided to just call it a day and go back to the cave now. No point in hanging out out here until the sun goes down and it starts to get cold. It was right at that precise moment that his stomach began to growl, alerting him to the fact that he hadn't eaten since this morning, which only served as a further incentive to head back to the cave. He might find the basket later if the ocean didn't take it away in the night, but he honestly wasn't too concerned about finding it. It was just a crappy little prawn-trap that Crusoe showed him how to make in order to keep him busy while he was in-land--visiting what he called his "laboratory."

Driftwood felt around on the ground next to him for his staff. When he finally located it, he got up to his feet and began walking towards the sound of the noise-makers he and Crusoe had rigged up in the tree that marked the starting point of the path back to the cave. He knew he was at the right tree when he could hear the sound of the noise-makers loud and clear above him. He brushed his hand along the trunk of the tree until he found the guideline that was wrapped around it, at about the height of his waist, and which ran the length of the path all the way into the cave.

Taking the line in his left hand, and his staff in his right, Driftwood started making his way slowly back up the trail. He knew he was in the forest when he could no longer feel the heat of the sun bearing down on him--the cool shade of the trees protecting him--and the sounds of the seals grew faint behind him. As he walked, he listened to the sounds of the birds calling to each other through the trees. 

Next to Crusoe, the birds and their songs were his only source of companionship on the island. After two weeks of listening to them nonstop, he was starting to recognize some of the songs the different types of birds made and had even started to try and replicate their calls back to them just for fun. He began to practice his calls right now as he walked beneath the trees--whistling and churrling merrily--until his troubled thoughts from before about the Song were forgotten for a brief moment. It was surprising how something as simple as whistling with the birds could lift one’s spirits. 

Some calls were easier than others to mimic but, as far as he knew, none of the birds actually recognized his attempts to communicate with them. Or they did recognize them and didn't think that he was worth communicating with. It didn't really make any difference to him--he just enjoyed whistling and he still liked to pretend that they actually were talking to each other. It certainly made him feel less lonely.

To his right, he heard a loud _thump_ of something hitting the ground that could only mean one thing: a coconut. Driftwood immediately stopped walking when he heard the sound and began to mentally measure out how far away it was. Based on the loudness and the clarity of the thud, it was safe to say that the coconut was very close to him--close enough that he could step from the path to find it without getting lost. The thought of delicious coconut milk and coconut meat made his mouth water. If he was lucky, the coconut might even have a whole heart within it, which would certainly help to quiet his belly.

He turned on his heel so that he was now facing directly towards where he heard the sound and then stepped off the path. He began to walk in a careful, precise, straight line into the forest--tapping his staff on the ground in a wide arc from left to right, feeling around for the coconut.

Thankfully he didn't have to go very far before he felt the coconut brush against his foot. He bent down to pick it up and gave it a quick examination of touch and smell with his hands and nose that told him the coconut was still ripe: not a hint of rot.

With his prize tucked safely under his arm, he made his way back towards the path and found the guideline again. The rest of the walk back to the cave was uneventful and, before long, he could hear the tinkling sounds of the noise-makers that were tied to the other end of the guideline that let him know that he was at the cave. He knew that he had entered it when he felt the air around him go still and the ground beneath him become solid rock.

Stepping into the coolness of the cave, Driftwood set his staff against the wall and began to walk towards the back. As he went forward, he ran his hand along the stone wall to help guide his way, and made clicking sounds with his tongue to help him mentally measure out the distance between where he was currently standing and the back of the cave where his sleeping spot was. As he walked through the cave, he noticed the heavy smell and taste of smoke in the air. The cave was very spacious and, according to Crusoe, had several holes in the ceiling that allowed for smoke to exit and rainwater to be collected. Such a thick amount of smoke in the air could only mean one thing.

Stepping away from the wall, Driftwood began to walk across the central space of the cave--unaided by his staff or any guiding surface for he was now very familiar with his new home and no longer had any fear of running into anything--until he reached the area where he knew the fire pit lay. Upon reaching it, he carefully stretched out a hand towards the firepit and immediately felt a distinct lack of heat coming from the area than what he had felt earlier, along with a weak crackling sound that could just barely be heard, which confirmed his suspicions: the fire was going out. 

He'd need to throw another log on it.

After he set his coconut down on his sleeping spot, he crouched low to the ground and made his way, almost on all fours, towards the woodpile to find a log. When he sensed that he was at the right spot, he felt around on the cave floor with his hands in an effort to try and locate a few logs for the fire. What he found was disconcerting--one pitiful log and a few twigs for kindling, but not much else.

He’d have to go out and get more firewood.

Driftwood carefully placed the last log onto the fire (along with some of the kindling) so that it wouldn’t die on him while he was out looking for wood. He’d managed to develop a pretty decent technique for putting wood on the fire without burning himself (of course, not without several failed attempts that resulted in a few singed fingers), but actually making a fire without being able to see it was a challenge that he wasn’t ready to take on just yet.

Grabbing his staff as he exited the cave, Driftwood made his way back down the path to the beach. The forest was much too humid and full of moisture for him to find any decent firewood--and there was still the fact that he didn’t know the terrain well enough to just walk in there blindly to find it. His best chance was to comb the beach for his namesake. The high tide would most likely have brought in a few decent sized pieces of driftwood that he could take back to the cave to burn. If the sun hadn’t already dried them out, he could place them close to the fire and dry them out that way.

He walked along the surf, searching for wood much in the same way he had searched for the coconut earlier--by tapping his staff along the ground in a wide arc in front of him. Whenever he felt the tip of his staff hit something solid, he’d crouch down to feel what it was. Usually, he would already know whether or not it was a piece of driftwood before he even crouched down--due to the distinct sound that was made when wood collided with wood--but he still liked to feel what it was on the off chance that it might be something interesting. One time, during one of his little beach walks he found something that sounded like a large rock when he hit it, but upon closer inspection, he realized that it was an animal--an animal with some kind of hard shell covering its body. He could tell by how it moved beneath his hand that it was slowly making its way towards the water; he could hear the scraping sounds of it sliding along on the sand on its belly. When he told Crusoe about it, he said that it was a sea turtle--probably a female that had come to shore in the night to lay her eggs.

On this particular walk, however, he was coming up with nill: no driftwood, no rocks, and no turtles. 

As he walked towards the other end of the beach, he could hear the sounds of the seals barking steadily increase in volume, which indicated that he was getting closer and closer to them. He slowed his pace down considerably so that he didn't accidentally frighten any of the seals by walking directly into their midst.

_That would certainly be an interesting change of pace from the monotony of the past two weeks: I accidentally step on a napping fur seal and wind up getting mauled to death._

While Driftwood walked along the surf, he was always careful to make sure that he didn't walk too close to the ocean water to where it might be able to touch him. Anytime it did, even if it was only a tiny amount, his skin at the affected area immediately began to tingle in a painful and unpleasant manner--as if a swarm of biting ants were crawling all over him. 

The worst of it was whenever his hands got wet. When that happened, he could feel his hand actually changing: the space between his fingers began to fill in with a thin membrane of skin. He hadn't shared this phenomenon with Crusoe yet; the man was paranoid and skittish enough about everything around him already and it wouldn't do for Driftwood to antagonize his only source of guidance on the island. As long as he stayed away from the ocean (which was probably a good idea to begin with considering his blindness), he didn't see why it would ever have to come up. Besides, the two of them were still pretty much strangers to each other and he wasn’t entirely sure that he was ready to trust Crusoe yet.

While he continued with his walk, his mind began to wander back to her: the woman of the Song. 

When the Song was at full strength in his head, he'd always see her in his mind's eye clear as day; she might as well have been standing next to him. He often wondered if she was the one who was singing the Song since the voice in his head sounded like a woman’s (despite the fact that he couldn’t actually remember ever having heard a woman talk or sing). It seemed like the most acceptable conclusion to make considering that everytime the Song came up, images of her soon followed. But that conclusion, rather than giving him any answers, only brought more questions.

Who was she? What was her connection to the Song? What was his connection to her?

So far, any attempt he made to find answers for those questions in his mind only led to him drawing a blank--literally a blank. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remember who she was--even the images of her that came with the Song went away just as quickly as they came and he was unable to recreate them in his mind's eye without the Song present.

The Song.

Everything seemed to come back to the Song. He knew in his heart that it was the ultimate source of both his blindness and his amnesia. He knew that it was the reason he was stranded on this island and that it was slowly driving him insane.

He also knew that it was the only link he had to his past. 

But would it be the key to him remembering who he was, or would it be the greatest obstacle between him and his memories?

He was suddenly jolted out of his musings by the sound of the tip of his staff hitting something on the ground. He tapped at it again to double check and, yup, that was something solid. It wasn’t a piece of driftwood though--the sound wasn’t right. Instead of the low _thunk_ of his staff hitting a solid piece of wood, it sounded more like a soft _thwip_. It sounded and behaved like an inanimate object, so he reached down to pick it up to see what it was. When he touched it he couldn’t help but to let out an audible groan of annoyance (and of slight amusement), as he immediately recognized what it was.

 _You have got to be kidding me!_ , he thought to himself in exasperation.

It was his basket.

He picked it up and held it in his hands, contemplating whether or not he should use the damn thing for kindling, when he suddenly felt the hairs on his arms and on the back of his neck stand up. The sounds of the waves and the wind, of the seal and the seabirds, faded away into silence until all he could hear was the dull roar of blood flowing through his ears, and even that too began to fade away into silence.

In the silence, he heard a voice say,

_Ben._

“Who’s there?” he said to the open air--unsure of where the voice came from or if it was even real. What did it just say? What’s a ben?

_Come to me, Ben. I can help you._

There was something strange about the voice. He’d heard it speak, but at the same time, he didn’t hear it either.

“Crusoe! Is that you!?” he called out again. He knew that it wasn’t. The voice sounded nothing like Crusoe; it felt nothing like Crusoe.

_Come to me, young one. I promise that I will help you, if you let me._

He then felt something--a presence--press against his mind and he immediately recoiled from it mentally the way he often tried (and failed) to do with the Song. However, rather than trying to further press its attempted contact, he felt the Presence begin to retreat away from him, seemingly aware of his negative reaction.

When he felt the Presence press forward toward his mind again, it did so with a great deal of caution and hesitation this time around. He could feel its intent in that it didn’t want to hurt or frighten him. He could also sense that it was waiting for him to give it permission to enter his mind. After two weeks of the Song scrambling his brain, he was sorely tempted to refuse, but there was something about the way the Presence felt--peaceful, wise, and _old_ \--that assured him that whatever it was, it wasn’t his enemy.

He decided to take a leap of faith, and mentally gave the Presence permission to enter his mind.

He suddenly felt a strange sense of calm wash over him--similar in many ways to the Song, but _wildly_ different--and, for the first time in weeks (maybe even longer), he felt his mind enter into a state of perfect focus and clarity. He wasn’t afraid or confused anymore, and he knew what he had to do.

Turning his back to the ocean, he dropped his basket on the ground and began to walk forward, towards the forest. He soon felt the subtle change in temperature that told him that he was now walking beneath the trees, out of the direct sun. Not once did he ever stop and consider turning around and going back. Just like that day when he first washed ashore on the beach, there was only one way to go: forward.

He still had his staff with him, but he no longer used it to help him guide his way--he didn’t need to. His feet now moved of their own accord; as if someone else had taken control of him and was now directing his movements in the right direction. If there were obstacles in his way--and he knew that there were, he could feel the branches of the underbrush brushing against him as he walked--he moved around them as smoothly and as carefully as if he could see them.

He didn’t know where he was going, or how long he had been walking, but that didn’t really concern him. He wasn’t worried about any fatigue from the hike or his previous hunger either. He felt like he was walking on air and some instinct told him that, as long as he continued to surrender to whatever presence had spoken to him, he would be guided in the right direction that he needed to go, and he would also be guided towards anything that he’d need to complete his journey: food, water, shelter. All he needed to do was go along for the ride.  
He could feel the Presence controlling his movements and he could sense that it was also being his eyes for him--it could see where he was going and it guided him towards the right path.

Some dim, distant part of his mind that had not entirely surrendered to the Presence briefly wondered if what he was doing was the smartest course of action. He had no clue if the Presence was actually interested in helping him or if it was just leading him to his death. Crusoe had warned him to beware of evil forces on the island that might try to hurt and corrupt him, and that they would try to do so in a way that he wouldn’t expect.

But this felt a little too direct, a little too obvious; he figured that if the evil were trying to corrupt him without him realizing it, it would be more subtle in its attack. He figured that he wouldn’t know it was happening in any way until it had already happened.

The Presence must have been observing his thoughts because he soon felt something from it that felt like amusement, but also a little bit like respect and pride. Clearly, it was glad that he was keeping these thoughts in his head and that just further reassured him that the Presence could be trusted, that it wasn’t his enemy.

He continued to walk effortlessly through the dense, tropical forest in a way that felt like he was just taking a leisurely stroll along the beach. The part of his brain that was still partially aware (something he suspected the Presence both allowed and encouraged) suspected that he’d been hiking over what was admittedly rough terrain for over an hour now, and it was starting to get late, he could feel the temperature of the air around him slowly dropping as time went on and the sun went down--it would be night soon.

Driftwood was climbing a slight hill when his peaceful state of mind was suddenly interrupted after he missed a handhold and slipped down the hill a bit. During that break in his concentration, he felt something else that wasn’t the Song or the Presence enter his mind. He hadn’t felt it before, but he immediately knew what it was. It was the thing Crusoe had tried to warn him about. The thing which he had foolishly assumed wasn’t a threat to him at the moment.

It was the Evil.

No, wait, that isn’t the right name for it. This thing, this force, this power didn’t feel evil (it didn’t feel good either); he couldn’t exactly remember what made “evil”, evil, but he instinctively knew that it didn’t feel like this. He knew that evil had a feeling to it the same as good did and that wasn’t what he could sense right now.

All he could sense was Nothing. Not good. Not evil. Just nothing.

An absolute, indifferent Nothing.

The Nothing didn’t actually try to force its way into his mind in any kind of way that could be called an attack. Rather, it felt more like it was just steadily approaching him (or maybe he was approaching it), growing and spreading through his mind like some kind of mold with a single-minded determination to consume him that he was powerless to stop--and yet it still felt like it was utterly apathetic to him. It wasn’t actively trying to hurt him because, for all he knew, it didn’t even know he was there. He was just in its way and it was going to consume him for no other reason than that. Like a fire or a storm rolling over the land.

He immediately began to mentally retreat within himself in a vain attempt to hide from the Nothing. He also retreated from the Presence, which was now trying to forcefully overtake his mind in a way that felt nothing like the gentle guidance he’d felt earlier. Now it felt like the Presence was trying to wrap a mental fist around his thoughts in a fierce, vice-like grip.

But even with all the chaos taking place in his mind, he could feel the Presence’s intent in its actions. The mental fist wasn’t an attack on his mind--it was a desperate attempt to shield him from the Nothing.

And it was failing.

The Nothing felt infinitely older (he didn’t think that was possible considering how much older the Presence felt compared to him) and more powerful than the Presence--the best comparison that he could make in his mind was that, if the Presence was like a human being, then the Nothing was a vast, endless ocean.

He completely lost his footing on the hill he had been climbing and wound up tumbling violently all the way down until he reached the bottom. By some miracle, he hadn’t broken anything, but he could feel cuts and scrapes forming all over his body. He must have hit his head as well on the way down because he felt an intense wave of vertigo and nausea come over him. Before he could try to stop himself, he vomited up what little he had eaten that day on the ground in front of him before he collapsed on the forest floor.

He didn’t bother trying to get up after that. He just laid on the ground, his head spinning and his body curled up in a fetal position, as the Presence and the Nothing wrestled for control of his mind. Truthfully, it felt like less of a wrestle and more like the Presence trying in vain to hold back the high tide by itself; one giving everything they had, and with all their effort, and the other just a mindless force of nature advancing without any kind of worry or care, partly because it actually didn’t care and partly because it knew that nothing could stop it. Never had he felt more powerless than he did in that moment. Not even the Song at its worst had ever affected him this way.

Naturally, that was the point at which the Song decided to make itself heard.

_OoooooooHooooooo……….._

 _Young One! Stay with me!_

_HoooooooOoooooo………….._

_Don’t let it into your mind!_

He didn’t know if the Presence was referring to the Song or the Nothing, but at that point he didn’t care either way. He just wanted all of them out of his head--including the Presence. He was regretting ever leaving the beach. He was regretting everything.

_I will protect you from him as best I can, but you must help me! You have to hold on! Fight hi--Ph’nglui mglw’--NO! BEN, DON’T LISTEN TO HIM!--nagl fhtag…..FIGHT HIM!!!_

For the first time since he had felt its relentless, emotionless advance on his mind, he sensed the Nothing interact with him. It still didn’t feel like a direct attempt to communicate, more like he was just listening in on a message that was being broadcasted over a great distance to anyone who might hear it--not unlike the songs of the birds. 

The Presence’s desperate attempts to communicate with him, to try and talk him through everything were soon undercut, and eventually overtaken, by a deep, menacing voice chanting what sounded like a bunch of nonsense syllables. He knew that they were anything but.

As the chanting continued, the Song seemed to grow in strength--almost as if in response to it. Soon, the two were warring with each other in his mind, each trying to be heard over the other, and in that cacophony, he could no longer feel the comforting Presence.

He only felt the overwhelming agony of madness

_OooooooooHoooooo…...nafh Cth……...HoooooooOooooooo….wgah…..Oooooo…._

_............nag…..Hooooooo…..agn……..HooooooOoooooo…..nglui…….._

_HooooooOooooooo……...Huuuuuooooooohhooooooo……..HooooooOooooo……._

_Ooooooohhhhoooooo………..HooooooooOOoooooooo…….OoooooHoooooooo…………._

_HoooooooooOoooooooooooo………_

……………………..

************************************************************************

He didn’t know how long he’d been out, or how long the overwhelming assault on his mind had gone on--all he knew was that it was finally over. His mind was his own again.

He awoke to the droning sounds of insects buzzing around his head and of the sickly smell of his own vomit on the ground a few inches from where he lay. He tried to stand up but when he did, another wave of vertigo washed over him and he had to push down the urge to vomit again.

He lay on the ground for a few minutes, trying to get his bearings and trying to let the vertigo pass before he made another attempt to move around. This time he didn’t even bother to make an attempt to stand again. Carefully, slowly, he pushed himself up to where he was now on all fours and crawled along on the ground on his hands and knees.

 _Move,_ he thought to himself with a bit of ironic humor.

He didn’t know where he was going, or what he was looking for, he just knew that, in this moment, he needed to stay in motion. Otherwise he might wind up dwelling on what had just happened to him. That was the absolute last thing he wanted to do.

The air around him felt much cooler than it had earlier, which told him that it was night time right now. It was night time and he was in the middle of the forest that he had no clue how to navigate through by himself.

He was screwed.

He knew that it was probably pointless, but he moved his hands around on the ground in front of him to try and find his staff. He knew that he’d dropped it during his little tumble down the hill but he had no earthly idea where it might have wound up. But a part of him couldn’t help but feel that, if he found it, he might be better off than he would be without it.

As he reached one of his hands out in front of him, he felt a familiar tingle along his spine and froze in place; his hand hovering in mid-air above the patch of ground that he was going to set it down on. He stopped because an image had passed through his brain of something long and slender like a vine, but very much alive. A few seconds later, he could hear the faint hissing sound of that slender body sliding itself along on the ground in front of him.

The word _snake_ flashed through his mind, along with a primal, instinctive fear that warned him to back away _veeerrrryyy_ slowly and find another way forward, which is exactly what he did.

His little detour eventually led to his hand making contact with something solid and made of wood. A further tactile inspection led him to believe that he was touching the exposed root of a large tree.

 _Perfect,_ he thought to himself. A tree would provide him with some kind of solid point of reference for him to orient himself with.

He ran his hand along the root until he reached the trunk of the tree. He felt around on the ground and on the roots of the tree for a safe place to sit down without fear of something sneaking up on him or crawling on him. He found a root that was of a decent size and thickness that he could comfortably sit on that would keep him elevated off the ground--something he greatly preferred to sitting directly on the forest floor. Crusoe had warned him about the things that were crawling around on the floor of the jungle (the snake from earlier being just one example), and he definitely wanted to avoid them if he could. 

What he couldn’t avoid, however, was the cloud of flying insects that had followed him everywhere. There was a constant buzzing and droning sound in his ears from the ones that were flying around his head, and he could feel them biting on him all over his body: his face, his arms, his feet, his legs, his neck--everywhere. He kept hitting himself all over and swatting at the air around him (occasionally hitting himself in the face by accident when his hand brushed a little too close to his head), but the constant assault was never ending--if he got one, there were a hundred more ready to take its place. There was no way he was sleeping tonight. 

In between bouts of fending off his minuscule attackers, he assessed his situation. He realized that it was very disconcerting.

He realized now that he had absolutely no idea where he was. When he was in that semi-fugue state where the Presence had been controlling his movements, he hadn’t been paying attention to where he had been walking. He mentally berated himself for blindly trusting in the Presence to safely guide him to wherever it was leading him (and for trusting the Presence in the first place), and for not using the part of his brain that he still had control of to mentally count his steps in order to gauge how far he’d walked--something he realized that he should have been doing the whole time.

A loud grumble from his stomach and a dryness in his mouth and throat alerted him to the fact that he hadn’t eaten any food or drank any water in hours, and what little sustenance he had taken in was vomited up earlier. He could also feel the fatigue of his extended trek (which he hadn’t felt earlier during the fugue state) finally catching up to him in the form of a burning pain in what felt like every single muscle in his body. It hurt him to even breathe.

He probably would have passed out by now from exhaustion if he hadn’t already blacked out from the previous attack on his mind (and from what was likely a concussion from his fall if the throbbing in his skull was any indication).

Hungry, thirsty, exhausted, disoriented, injured, constantly under attack from bloodsuckers, and lost somewhere in a hostile jungle with no clue how to find his way back to the cave, or how to find food, water, or shelter.

And he was still just as blind as he was before.

He was so fucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, feel free to leave comments and let me know how ya'll are liking the story.
> 
> Hopefully the next chapter (a Ryn chapter) will flow a little better and I'll be able to post it in a more timely manner.


	6. Amity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryn works to bring her people and the people of Bristol Cove together while also doing her best to spend some quality time with Maddie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I LIIIIIIIIIVE!
> 
> I am _so_ sorry for making you guys wait so long for this one. Real life and writers block have been simultaneously kicking my ass. I hope ya'll can forgive me. This chapter is extra long and full of Raddie content so I'm sure ya'll will.
> 
> As for the bad news we all got back in August about Siren being cancelled, here's my take.
> 
> Maddie deserved better, that goes without saying, and I've already said a _lot_. Ryn deserved better too. Her two main character arcs for the season (her rivalry with Tia and her becoming a mother) were both kind of under developed if you ask me, not to mention she wound up getting robbed of both her love interests by the end of the season. Even with her becoming Queen of the Merpeople, it felt like a lackluster conclusion for such an interesting and dynamic character.
> 
> And then there's Ben.
> 
> I'm going to be completely honest with ya'll--I feel that he was done just as dirty by the writers as Maddie was, just in a different way. After season 2, it looked like he was set up for what was going to be an awesome character arc as he struggled to come to terms with his choice to leave Ian to die, while also finally getting a chance to finally confront and rise above the effects of the Siren Song, to prove once and for all that he was at heart a good person who wouldn't fall prey to his ancestors' curse. Instead of that, we just got another pseudo-addiction plot that, by the end of the season, was completely pointless narratively speaking and had absolutely no internal logic to it (much like Maddie's entire plot with Robb this season; I'm sensing a trend here). Seriously, WHAT was the point of Ben digging up a dead mermaid and messing around with those stem-cells if all it was going to lead to was him getting lost at sea? It didn't help to heal his mom (which was supposed to be the whole reason he was doing it in the first place, RIGHT?) and then there was the whole travesty that was his and Ryn's relationship in the second half of the season. Don't even get me started on that. I was really hoping that this would have been the season where the two of them would have been able to improve on the problems they were constantly facing because of the Siren Song, and for the first half of the season, it honestly felt like that was going to happen, but alas, twas not to be. SMH
> 
> So yeah, the writers screwed over Ben too, and I think its safe to say that he deserved better just as much as the girls.
> 
> And we as fans deserved a better ending for this show that we all loved!
> 
> If it wasn't blatantly obvious by my rambling, my brain is absolutely fried from trying to type up this chapter over the past two months and I'm posting this right now at 3:00 am after a long day at work so I apologize for making ya'll have to read through my nonsense. With that being said, I hope ya'll enjoy reading through my nonsense! Enjoy!

Ryn stirred briefly from her slumber. 

She could sense from the sun coming through the blinds of the bedroom window that it was morning, but she didn’t bother trying to will herself up and out of bed, or to try and open her eyes even the slightest crack. To do either would imply that she intended on fully waking up--something she had absolutely no intention of doing at the moment. 

For one thing, she was absolutely exhausted from staying up all night the night before. 

She had made good on her plans to get as much of Maddie as she could before going back to the water and the two of them had been spending the past few days since they went to the movies making love whenever they had the chance. Last night had been particularly eventful with her and Maddie nearly killing each other from how long and intense it had been. Ryn had no idea what had gotten into the two of them, but she wasn’t complaining, and she _definitely_ wasn’t going to bother asking unnecessary questions while she was still basking in the post-coital bliss.

Nope, all she wanted right now was to get as much sleep as she could before she had to start the day. She and Helen had an important meeting with the town council today, and she wanted to be "bright eyed and bushy tailed" (as Helen would say) when she went to it.

Another reason she wanted to stay in bed for as long as possible was so that she could savor the feeling of Maddie holding her in her arms, her front pressed up against Ryn’s back; “spooning,” is what Ben and Maddie called it.

Ryn loved spooning. 

The closeness and comfort of feeling the presence of those she trusted and loved the most holding her tightly never failed to make her feel safe and protected. When she and her tribe rested together, whether on land or in the water, they would all hold each other close in a way that was very similar to spooning. However, she acknowledged that that had more to do with mutual protection and reassurance than love or affection. It was also a great sign of trust to those you were sleeping with--that you were willing to be in such a vulnerable state in their presence. 

The first time she had crawled into bed between Ben and Maddie, that had been just her intention--to show that she trusted the both of them enough to protect her while she slept. She had honestly been surprised at just how completely relaxed she had become from sharing a bed with the human couple--even if that first night had been slightly awkward for all three of them.

As time went on and her feelings for the both of them grew, she found another reason to want to share a bed with the two humans. No amount of protection that she might have felt from sleeping in a pile with her whole tribe could compare to the warm and intimate feeling of being tightly sandwiched between her loves, of the two of them holding her close in their arms, their torsos pressed up against each other, and their legs all tangled together.

For Ryn, spooning with Ben and Maddie had become the only proper way to sleep.

She was startled from her dozing by the sound of Maddie making little noises in her sleep--this immediately alerted Ryn that something was wrong. 

Maddie was normally very quiet when she slept (unlike Ben who would sometimes snore quietly whenever he slept on his back), and Ryn knew that the noises could mean only one thing--Maddie was having the dreams again. 

Ryn had finally been able to persuade Maddie to tell her what had been bothering her so much recently, and Maddie finally told her about the strange dreams she sometimes had, including the most recent one where she saw herself die through Ben’s eyes. Ryn immediately hated the thought of such a dream. Why Maddie had dreamed it though was something neither of them could make sense of.

Ryn still couldn’t understand the purpose of dreams, or why it was something that humans could do and her people couldn’t. She and Maddie had both discussed it at one point and they agreed that it probably had to do with the fact that her people didn’t sleep in the same way that humans did. In the water, her people rested in a way that was very similar to the other creatures of the ocean--they would rest while either swimming very slowly, or stationary after they had secured themselves in a safe hiding place, but they would always be semi-awake and ready to respond to danger. On land, there was a safety and a stability to be found that wasn’t possible in the water which allowed her to enter into a deeper sleep than what she had ever experienced before. It was in this deep sleep, which Maddie called “rem”, when humans would dream and apparently it was also when Ryn was able to dream as well.

To Ryn, all dreams were strange, and she had experienced several bad ones before that had deeply worried her for days afterwards, but Maddie had told her that that was actually quite normal. Some dreams were bad and some were good; it just depended on what was on your mind the most when you went to sleep. But it was a normal part of being human.

So when Maddie told Ryn that the dreams she had been having were strange and unusual ones, beyond what was normal for her, Ryn believed her.

Ryn turned her entire body over so that she was now facing Maddie and opened her eyes, which were still heavily encrusted with sleep, to look at her wife’s face. Maddie’s eyebrows were deeply furrowed and she had a frown on her face. Every so often, her head would twitch slightly and she’d make a small grunting sound of displeasure--whatever this dream was, it was clearly upsetting her.

In her half-asleep, half-awake state of mind, Ryn acted on impulse and began to gently run her fingers along Maddie’s brow, trying to smooth the worry lines that had formed on her mate’s forehead. This seemed to work a little bit because Maddie seemed to settle down a bit in her sleep. Still half-asleep and not thinking, Ryn let her hand move downwards of its own volition until she was fully caressing Maddie’s cheek, her thumb rubbing back and forth across Maddie’s cheekbone. This eventually caused Maddie to wake up with a start.

It hadn’t been Ryn’s intention to wake Maddie from her sleep--just to gently reassure her mate that she was alright--but her hand must have been more firm than she had intended, or maybe Maddie hadn’t been sleeping as heavily as Ryn had originally thought.

Maddie took a few seconds to get her bearings and, when she realized that she was awake, a small smile crept across her face when she saw Ryn laying next to her, gazing at her. Ryn could feel a smile of her own beginning to form in response. 

“Good morning,” Maddie said in a soft, sleepy voice that was punctuated by a yawn. Ryn suddenly had to fight down the urge to yawn herself; a fight she quickly lost.

“Mo-ha, hoooooorrrr-rning,” Ryn said back through a huge yawn of her own. After she finished, she tried her greeting again. “Morning. You were having the dreams again.”

Maddie’s smile turned faintly downwards. Ryn didn’t mean to be so blunt, she knew that the dreams were a very sensitive topic for Maddie, but she couldn’t think of any other way to broach the subject except head on. She hated seeing Maddie be so tormented by these dreams--it reminded her too much of what happened with Ben and her Song.

“It’s okay, I just…..,” Maddie started to say, clearly trying to put Ryn’s mind at ease by acting like it wasn’t any big deal, but Ryn wasn’t falling for it.

“Maddie,” was all Ryn said, but her tone said a great deal more. She wasn’t going to just leave this alone. Something was wrong with her wife and Ryn was going to find out what it was, and more importantly, she was going to help Maddie through it in whatever way she could.

Ryn could see from the look in Maddie’s eyes that whatever plans she might have had to keep her worries to herself were being put aside in favor of sharing them with Ryn. “Yeah, I had the dreams again,” Maddie admitted.

“What did you see in the dreams?” Ryn asked, genuinely curious about what Maddie was seeing in her sleep. “The Buffalo?”

“No, not him this time,” Maddie admitted.

“Ben?”

Maddie shook her head. “No.” 

The way she said it, and the look on her face, gave the impression that she was sad that she hadn’t dreamed about him, but at the same time she was also glad that she hadn’t. Ryn understood that feeling. Dreams about Ben were the closest thing either of them had to being with him again, but when they woke from those dreams, he was gone again and they were once again left with feelings of sadness and longing for their lost love.

Maddie looked downwards, away from Ryn for a moment, appearing to collect her thoughts, before her gaze returned to Ryn’s.

“I dreamed……...that I was underwater, in the ocean,” Maddie began. “It was like I had just fallen off of a boat and I was slowly sinking to the bottom.”

“Were you drowning?”

“No, I wasn’t…..Not exactly…….I mean, I could breathe, but I couldn’t swim back up to the surface no matter how hard I tried. It was like I was too heavy. Eventually, I stopped trying to swim up and I just let myself sink.

“It was so weird. I could actually feel the cold and the pressure of the water increasing the further down I went, but I wasn’t worried about it hurting me in any way because it didn’t.”

“Were you like me in the water?” Ryn asked. “Did you change?”

“No,” Maddie answered. “I think I was still human.”

“Were you afraid?”

“Not at first. When I was close to the surface it was actually very beautiful--everything was so clear and blue that I could see for miles all around me--and there were so many fish! More than I’d ever seen anywhere in my life.

“But the further down I went, the darker it got and the fewer fish there were.”

Ryn nodded her head to let Maddie know that she was listening and that she understood, but truthfully, this didn’t sound like too strange a dream--even for Ryn. She dreamed quite a bit about the ocean herself and she knew from personal experience that the ocean floor, while still teeming with unique life, was much more sparsely populated than the upper regions of the ocean--especially when it was out in the open ocean, far away from any land.

“I finally reached the bottom of the ocean when I hit the seabed. For a while, I just laid there at the bottom and tried to see what was around me, but I couldn’t see a thing. It was so dark, Ryn. I didn’t think that anything or anywhere in the world could be so dark as that place.”

Ryn knew what Maddie was talking about. The deep ocean where she had grown up was far enough away from the surface that light struggled to reach that far down. Thankfully, her people’s eyes were well adapted to seeing in the dark so that she was able to see more in the low-light than humans were capable of. But she also knew that there were parts of the ocean that were even deeper than where she was born, places spoken of in stories by the elders of her people, where the darkness was so great that not even she would be able to see through it.

“Somehow, I was able to stand up, I don’t know how, there was so much pressure--I mean, it was a dream, of course I could stand up--and I just looked all around me, trying to see _something_ in the darkness, but it was all pitch black. I couldn’t see a thing.

“But then, I think I saw……...something…....swimming in the darkness.”

“What was it?” Ryn asked her.

“I don’t know. I honestly didn’t ‘see’ them--I’m pretty sure there were more than one because I could sense them all around me at the same time--so much that I could feel them moving around me. I could feel the water currents shift as they swam and I could hear them making noises. They weren’t like the noises you and your people make underwater. They sounded more…...vicious, I don’t know how else to describe it.

“Eventually, the movement stopped and the water around me was still, and then, out of nowhere, there were all of these little lights twinkling around me, like stars in the night sky. Then, a few of them started to wink in and out, like they were being turned on and off.”

Maddie then had a look on her face that Ryn knew right away as being one of fear. “That’s when I realized that the lights were blinking in and out in pairs. They weren’t lights. They were eyes, looking at me--thousands of them. I think they knew that I had just realized that because, when I did, they all began moving towards me really fast like they were about to attack me; that’s when you woke me up.”

Ryn didn’t know what to make of what Maddie had just told her. She had no idea why Maddie would dream of such things or what it might mean--was Maddie dreaming about her people attacking her deep under the ocean? Was she afraid of Ryn and her people? That didn’t make any sense though, because Maddie said that the noises she heard in her dream weren’t like the ones Ryn’s people made, and she had been dreaming about a part of the ocean that not even Ryn had ever been to, much less her human mate. So what were they?

The males who had raised her used to tell stories of the Bad Things, the Nameless Things--worse than humans--that lived down in those places of absolute cold and darkness where there was no food to be found. They would tell her those stories so that she wouldn’t try to swim down there into those deep trenches; the same way they used to tell her stories about humans so that she would stay away from them. While she had learned from personal experience that the stories her people told about humans were not entirely true, she wasn’t willing to prove whether or not the stories of the deep also had any truth to them. She instinctively knew that they did.

Ryn couldn’t understand why Maddie was dreaming of those things. She had never told Maddie about them before. Did humans have their own stories about the deep ocean? Was Maddie dreaming about them because she was worried about Ryn going back to the ocean again?

Maybe that was it? When it came to dreams, Ryn wasn't really sure what to say that might offer some kind of an explanation for why her mate was seeing what she saw. Maybe they could talk to Helen about them. Helen dreamed like other humans, but she had also experienced visions of her own when the spirits of Sister and Sarge had come to her.

Ryn voiced that idea to Maddie who, despite still being clearly hesitant to share these dream-visions with anyone else, agreed that it might be a good idea since the dreams were occurring more frequently than they used to. Helen might not have an answer for what was happening, but at least she could provide another mind to bounce ideas off of.

With that matter settled for now, Ryn watched as Maddie turned over slightly to look at the alarm clock on the bedside table behind her. Ryn peeked up over Maddie’s body to look at the clock herself; to her dismay, it showed that it would soon be time for Maddie to get up and get ready to go to the Research Center. Despite many businesses in town having to either close down or use fewer workers due to the sickness, Maddie still had to go into the MRC nearly everyday to make sure the sea lions were taken care of and that all of the other projects at the Center were still running smoothly.

Maddie turned back around to look at Ryn, her face showing a clear dismay of her own that they wouldn’t be able to spend the morning cuddling like they had hoped. 

“I gotta go get ready for work,” Maddie said with an exaggerated frown on her face, pretending like having to get out of bed was the most unpleasant task imaginable. Ryn saw as she began to make the motions that indicated she was about to throw off the covers and get up out of bed.

Not if Ryn had anything to say about it.

Quick as an eel striking out of its hole, Ryn lunged out and wrapped an arm around Maddie to pull her back down onto the bed.

“No,” Ryn said in a pouty tone while she held Maddie tightly to her. “You stay right here!” 

Ryn wasn’t actually going to try and stop Maddie from leaving, she just wanted an excuse to fool around a bit before Maddie actually had to leave. The alarm clock hadn’t gone off yet, so Ryn figured she had until then.

“Ryn!” Maddie said with mock indignation, clearly struggling not to laugh in amusement, as Ryn proceeded to nuzzle her face into Maddie’s neck to try and encourage her to stay a little longer. “Ryn, I’ve got to go and get ready.” 

“No you don’t--you can stay right here with Ryn for a little while longer,” Ryn said in a low, raspy voice that she knew always made Maddie excited and eager to make love with her. “Seductive”, had been the word Maddie used to describe it.

 _It made Ben want to make love with me too_ , Ryn thought to herself with a sad longing.

To try and entice Maddie further, Ryn began to plant little, nipping kisses on Maddie’s neck and shoulder while she rubbed her naked body against Maddie’s. It was similar in many ways to how she and the females of her tribe would rub against each other in the water to maintain close bonds. However, that was not _nearly_ as emotionally intimate as this, and it didn’t feel nearly as good. If there was one thing she liked about her human body (in moments like this at least), it was how much more sensitive to the touch it was compared to her true form.

“And Ryn will stay right. Here. With. You,” she said in a low whisper, punctuating each word with a kiss as she moved further and further down Maddie’s body, moving from her neck, to her collarbone, to the raven feather tattoo on her right breast. While she did this, Ryn brought both of her hands up to gently palm and cup at Maddie’s breasts, kneading the supple flesh and thumbing at Maddie’s nipples until she felt them harden into firm little peaks. This caused Maddie to make happy little humming noises that turned into soft moans of pleasure as she laid back and allowed herself to enjoy Ryn’s ministrations. Ryn could smell the scent of Maddie’s arousal in the air growing stronger. She could also feel her own beginning build as a tight coil of warmth began to pool between her legs. 

When Ryn sensed that Maddie was ready, she moved to take the stiff nub of her wife’s breast into her mouth, when-

_BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_

The both of them let out a groan of frustration at the alarm clock’s cacophonous interruption. They both knew what it meant: time to start the day.

“Okay, now I really do need to go and get ready,” Maddie said.

“Nooooooo,” Ryn let out her disapproval in an exaggerated whine as she nuzzled her face into Maddie’s chest, hoping for a few extra minutes.

“Yeeeeeees,” Masddie replied in a similar tone, with a note of amusement in her voice at Ryn’s dramatic antics.

Ryn let out a frustrated hiss as she moved off of Maddie to turn off the alarm clock (although not before she planted a firm kiss on the nipple she had intended to suckle), and in doing so allowed Maddie to finally get up out of bed. Once the clock was turned off, Ryn laid back on the bed and watched as Maddie walked over to their dresser to pick out her outfit for the day.

Why humans insisted on living by these ridiculous schedules where they had to get up early and work at boring jobs all day for green paper, Ryn would never understand. In Maddie’s case, at least, she could understand how important her job was. Her work helped to protect and heal the ocean. Of course that didn’t mean Ryn wasn’t any less irritated at being denied the chance to make love with her wife.

While Maddie finished picking out her clothes, Ryn took a moment to just stop and observe her human mate’s form and movements--which were much more pronounced to Ryn right now since Maddie was completely naked. Like every previous instance, her eyes were immediately drawn to Maddie’s legs, and Ryn couldn’t help but marvel at how she was able to move around so gracefully on those scrawny, spindly things. Compared to her own strong and powerful tail, human legs seemed so frail and awkward (and she knew that they could indeed break quite easily in many different ways), but somehow they managed to get along just fine on land. 

_Humans in general seem so fragile compared to my people_ , Ryn thought to herself. 

Blunt teeth and nails that were no good for biting or clawing (at least, not in a fight; although they were good at biting and scratching in other ways, she thought to herself with a smirk), and that same skin that was so wonderfully soft and sensitive to the touch was also defenseless and easily damaged. Even though she knew that they could protect themselves just fine in a fight, Ryn’s first instinct whenever there was danger present was always to put herself between her vulnerable mates and whatever might be trying to hurt them.

When Maddie was finished choosing her outfit for the day, she came back over to the bed and sat down next to Ryn. Their hands immediately gravitated towards each other, their fingers interlacing with one another, like they always seemed to do without either of them even realizing it. Ryn watched as Maddie’s eyes briefly glanced over her still naked form before she returned her gaze to Ryn’s face. Ryn didn’t mind Maddie taking a look; she was doing the same thing as well--admiring those long, smooth legs that she now found to be very attractive.

“Are you nervous about your meeting with the town council today?” Maddie asked Ryn.

“No,” Ryn answered. “Should I be?”

“No...I was just asking because I know how important this is for you, and I just wanted to be supportive in case you were a little nervous; I know first-hand how intimidating it can be to have to pitch a new idea to a room full of skeptical people who are already thinking of ways to tell you ‘no’. Remember how jittery I was before I had to present my thesis for my PhD?”

Ryn nodded, remembering how nervous Maddie had been in the days leading up to that. She never thought for a second that Maddie wouldn’t do well, and Maddie herself had admitted that she was confident that she would do a good job, but the pressure and anticipation of having to speak publicly for something so important still wound up putting Maddie a little on edge.

That had been one of the many times where Ryn had wished Ben was still with them. He had already gone through the same thing and Ryn had to admit to herself that he probably would have known what words to say that would have better reassured Maddie--although Maddie had assured Ryn that her own words of support had been more than enough encouragement. 

If not for anything else, she wished that Ben had been there so that the two of them could both be there together for Maddie--to show her how much they supported and believed in her. How proud of her they were. How much they both loved her.

In this instance, however, any nerves that Ryn might have felt about speaking before the human leaders of Bristol Cove were being firmly pushed down. She was the supreme leader of three tribes, undefeated in the face of all challenges, and mother to the first children born in many tides. And today, when she spoke, she was in many ways going to be speaking for _all_ of her kind, across all oceans, so that they might have a peaceful future with the humans. There was no room for nervous.

She told this to Maddie. “I will have Helen there with me too. She is good at talking to other humans, and Ben’s father….” Ryn paused for a moment as she thought about one of their more uncertain allies. “He has promised that he will help us. For Ben.”

“Hmmm,” Maddie said with a hint of doubt in her voice. They both knew that Ted Pownall was still very suspicious and somewhat fearful of anything that had to do with Ryn and her people. His willingness to help had more to do with grief over the loss of his son and shame at his family’s dark history than any kind of altruistic feelings of togetherness. But beggars can’t be choosers, and they would need someone like Ted, who still held great influence with the town’s leaders, if they were going to move forward with a plan like this.

The initial idea had been Ryn’s in that she wanted her people and the humans to live together in harmony--for there to be no more need for secrets or hatred. She wanted for the humans to respect her people and the ocean they called home, and she wanted her people to stop seeing humans as only bad; as enemies that needed to be killed. Ryn knew, however, that the first step towards that happening was for the two groups to learn how to understand one another.

The main inspiration for just exactly _how_ they were going to accomplish this came from the memory of Ryn’s first day on land--the day she first saw Maddie at the MRC. Ben and Maddie had always told her that one of the most important things they did at the Center was to teach other humans about the ocean so that they would want to take better care of it. 

Ryn realized that a different type of center could be set up in Bristol Cove to do the exact same thing for her people and the humans. Somewhere where the two groups (three, if the hybrids decided to contribute to it) could interact and learn about each other so that they would eventually seem less mysterious and threatening to each other. 

She also hoped that this new center would provide a suitable temporary home for any of her people who came ashore. A place where they could be safe and learn how life on land worked--and in doing so better learn to understand humans. Helen was very supportive of this particular aspect of the new center since it would mean that she wouldn’t have to constantly be the sole provider for Ryn’s people whenever they came to land. 

Beth and the other hybrids had offered to find a place on their land where Ryn’s people could stay, where the center could be located, but Ryn, Maddie, and Helen had all been wary of such an idea after their tumultuous history with the hybrids. After they tried to steal Hope, Ryn had finally realized just how much Beth and her people had lost themselves in their obsession with their connection to her people. They had forgotten that they were the children of _two_ peoples--her’s and the humans; of sea and land--not just one, and it had led to the creation of Bryan and his followers, who believed that they were completely separate from their human sides, and a little too ready to resort to violence against an enemy that didn’t exist.

Until the hybrids learned to stop living in fear of their fellow humans (and stopped worshipping her people as if they were gods) Ryn wanted to maintain a little distance between her people and the hybrids. She didn’t need the more hostile members of the hybrid community negatively influencing her people’s already dark opinion of humans. She also felt that it was best for all three of the groups who called Bristol Cove home to meet in an area that was somewhat neutral so as to better encourage them to coexist peacefully with each other.

Ryn wasn’t naive though. She knew that such conditions would be hard to come by and, even if her idea was successful, it wouldn’t solve all of the problems that existed between her kind and the humans. There would always be those on both sides who would refuse to coexist peacefully, and it would be a long time and many generations before the wounds of the past were fully healed.

But Ryn had to start somewhere, and this seemed like the best place to do so.

“I’m sorry I can’t be there with you,” Maddie said to her. “You, me, and Helen standing up there together would definitely help to get our point across.”

“It’s okay--they need you at the center,” Ryn reassured Maddie. “Do they know yet what is happening to the sea lions?” 

“No, nobody can understand what’s wrong with them.”

Recently, all of the sea lions around Bristol Cove had been showing some very troubling behavior. They all refused to go out into the ocean, either crowding around on the beach or staying close to the Marine Research Center. Maddie’s employees had even reported that a few of the ones they had been observing and caring for had gone missing. 

“They aren’t sick or anything,” Maddie told her. “And there doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with the water or the other animals that we don’t already know about.

“If I didn’t know any better, it’s almost as if they’re afraid to go into the water,” Maddie said, her mind clearly trying to work out a possible answer for this strange question. Ryn couldn’t understand it either. She hadn’t sensed anything wrong in the ocean like she had when the sonic cannon was being used by the oil company.

“Could it have anything to do with the others? Your people?” Maddie asked. “I know the purple-eyes and the silver-eyes are staying mostly in their old territories, but you also told me that everyone is kind of sharing the combined area now. Could that be it? More Mers in the area scaring the lions?”

Ryn shook her head, “No. My people, even when we were still separate tribes, like to spend most of their time in smaller packs. Makes hunting easier. The whole tribe doesn’t gather together in great numbers except for war and mating.

“When I go back to the water, I will ask my people if they have seen anything strange that might be scaring the sea lions,” Ryn reassured Maddie, giving her hand a gentle squeeze with her own as she did so.

At the mention of Ryn’s impending return trip to the water--still a month away based on the last few instances--the mood between the two of them turned somewhat somber. Maddie had repeatedly said that she understood why Ryn needed to have these longer trips in the ocean; but that didn’t mean that she had to like it and Ryn could easily sense it through their connection. Truthfully, Ryn was equally displeased by the situation as Maddie was; once Ryn went back in the water, it could be months before the two of them were able to truly be together again. But the two of them both knew that they were going to have their whole lives together on land once Ryn lost the ability to change. Until that day came, Ryn _needed_ to be in the water as much as she possibly could, in her true form, being her true self with her people.

More importantly though, Ryn needed to see her babies. She wanted to see how strong and fierce her daughters had become. She wanted to hunt, swim, and sing with them. She wanted to see her son, her beautiful baby boy, and hold him close to her to show him that she loved him just as much as his sisters.

As if she could tell what Ryn was thinking about, Maddie said to her, “Make sure to give the babies all my love when you see them.”

“I will, and I will bring them with me when we meet together in our cove at the full moon,” Ryn replied. “They miss seeing their ‘Land-Mother’.”

Upon hearing the children’s name for her, Maddie smiled and let out a small chuckle. “Well, ‘Land-Mother’ misses them too; just as much as she’s going to miss you,” she said in a soft voice, her thumb rubbing at the wedding band on Ryn’s finger--the two of them continuing to hold hands. 

Ryn leaned forward and pressed her forehead into Maddie’s who met her half way. The two of them stayed like that for a while, listening to each other’s breathing and savoring the quiet moment together between them, before Maddie leaned back and broke the silence by speaking up again.

“Guess what?”

“Hmm?”

“I get off work early today, so when you're done with your meeting, you can come down and meet me at the Center. I’ll have a surprise there for you,” she said while reaching up with her free hand to brush aside a strand of Ryn’s hair that had gotten stuck to her face and tangled up with her own long curls, before tucking it behind Ryn’s ear. Ryn couldn’t help but lean her head over slightly to nuzzle into Maddie’s touch for a second before Maddie was able to fully pull her hand away.

“Surprise?” Ryn asked, perking up with excitement at the thought. “What kind of surprise?”

“If I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise. Now, would it?” Maddie said with a mischievous smile.

“No, it wouldn’t,” Ryn said with a smile of her own.

Maddie kissed Ryn three times--on her forehead, on her nose, and then finally on her mouth--before getting up and heading out of the bedroom to take a quick shower. Ryn thought about following her so that they could share one, but decided against it since they didn’t really have the time, and Ryn didn’t trust herself enough that she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from getting carried away. Instead, she decided to get started on making breakfast for the two of them while Maddie finished her morning routine.

Set on that course of action, Ryn got up off of the bed, grabbed a t-shirt from her dresser-drawer, and threw it on before heading out into the kitchen. As she made her way across the apartment, she heard the sound of rushing water start up in the bathroom that told her Maddie was in the shower.

While she looked around in the fridge for some eggs to make omelettes, she caught a whiff of the scent of the shirt she was wearing. Once she recognized it, she felt an unexpected wave of emotions wash over her. She had grabbed _their_ shirt without even realizing it.

Originally, it had been one of Ben’s favorite t-shirts that he had worn frequently--enough that his scent seemed to have permanently incorporated itself into the fabric of the shirt. Then, when he and Maddie got together, she began to wear it too, to sleep in, until her scent mingled with his. It had been for that very reason that Ryn had stolen it for herself on many occasions, which had led to her scent being added to theirs’ as well. This, combined with the fact that they frequently traded it between the three of them, had led to Ben jokingly saying that it was no longer his shirt but their shirt.

After two years, Ben’s smell in the shirt wasn’t as strong as it used to be, but Ryn liked to think that she could still pick up faint hints of her lost mate’s scent if she focused hard enough, and in doing so, she could still smell the scent of the three of them mingled together--the scent of their love.

It was a scent that brought her strength as well as comfort. The three of them together had done many great things for both the humans and her people, and Ryn had to admit that having them by her side always made her feel stronger and more confident than when she was by herself--something that she needed for today.

Maddie had said that she would be with Ryn in spirit during her meeting, supporting her from afar, and Ryn liked to think that Ben would be there with her in spirit as well; supporting her from wherever he was. The smell of their shirt (which she decided she was going to wear under her sweater during the meeting) would provide her with a physical reminder of that fact.

Ryn was brought out of her musings by a pair of arms wrapping around her waist from behind. She had been so caught up in her thoughts and in cooking breakfast, that she hadn’t noticed the sound of the shower turning off or of Maddie coming up behind her. She felt Maddie nuzzle into her hair before placing a kiss on the top of her head, while her hands started to sneak up under Ryn’s shirt so as to roam across the bare skin of her stomach. Obviously, Maddie still had their failed attempt at a morning quickie on her mind. Ryn certainly knew that it was still on her’s.

“Omelettes are almost done,” Ryn told her, trying to stay focused on the eggs she was cooking and not Maddie’s hand which had just grazed the underside of her breast. “There’s bread in the toaster.”

“Hmmm,” Maddie hummed into Ryn’s hair. “What’d you put in them? Raisins and marshmallows?”

“Green onions and pieces of ham,” Ryn replied, rolling her eyes at Maddie’s sarcasm, but also smiling at the easy banter that they had grown into after being together for so long.

“Sounds delicious. I’ll grab some plates,” Maddie said before disengaging her arms from around Ryn’s waist. Ryn was honestly glad that she did, because her hands were starting to deliberately wander up and down towards places that would have led to Ryn being distracted from the food cooking on the stove, which undoubtedly would have led to a burnt breakfast--again.

Once the omelettes and the toast were ready, along with a simple fruit salad that Maddie had prepared while Ryn was finishing up the eggs, the two of them sat down and ate their meal together. While they ate, they went over what Ryn was going to say to the town council one last time, with Maddie offering Ryn bits of advice on how to handle certain members of the council that she knew about from growing up in the town. While they spoke, however, Ryn could tell from their connection, and just from observing her, that a part of Maddie's mind was elsewhere. Ryn knew exactly where that part of her wife’s mind was--her dreams.

Ryn hoped that Helen would be able to help Maddie in understanding what the dreams might mean. They were starting to happen more frequently and they weren’t all just about Ben anymore. Ryn was unsettled by the knowledge that Maddie was now dreaming about something that involved a part of the ocean that even her people were afraid of. She wondered if it might be a warning that something was wrong in the ocean. 

This thought immediately led to her worrying about the safety of her children. She couldn’t sense anything through her connection with them that might indicate that something was wrong--their hearts were all still beating steady and strong. But her anxiety about it wasn’t going to be satisfied until she was back in the water and saw all three of her children in front of her, safe and sound.

Maddie managed to finish eating her breakfast before Ryn did and got up to put her plate and fork in the sink before heading for the door. Ryn got up to walk her out, but she was only able to walk Maddie to the door, rather than to her car, since all she was wearing was a t-shirt.

Before she finally left their apartment, Maddie turned back around to face Ryn one last time. She brought her hands up and gently cradled Ryn’s face between them so that she had no choice but to look up at Maddie’s face. Looking up at Maddie’s beautiful brown eyes and her warm smile, Ryn had to fight the urge to melt into a puddle, then and there. There was another urge she had to fight down as well but, thankfully, it was a fleeting one--her Song remained in her heart where it belonged.

“You’re going to do great today baby,” Maddie said to her. “I believe in you.”

Ryn smiled up at her wife. It surprised her how such simple words from the woman she loved could fill her with so much happiness and warmth. 

“Thank you, Maddie,” was all that she could say.

Still cradling Ryn’s face, Maddie leaned down to give her one last tender kiss good-bye, and Ryn got up on the tips of her toes to meet her half-way. Her hands instinctively came up to rest on Maddie’s waist as she did so.

“I love you,” Ryn said when they finally broke away.

“I love you too,” Maddie replied.

With their final goodbyes said, Maddie left to go to work and Ryn went back to her half-eaten breakfast at the kitchen table. Her meeting wasn’t for another two hours so she had a little extra time to prepare before she had to go down to the town hall.

Ryn was feeling pretty confident that it would go well. Maddie and Helen had warned her that she’d probably get some pushback from certain members of the council, but Ryn liked to think that she’d be able to win them over to her side once she explained the spirit of her idea. The humans of this town were obsessed with her people, and their endless curiosity about her in particular would no doubt lead to them embracing the creation of a place where they could learn about and interact with her people directly and vice versa.

 _It’s all going to work out okay_ , Ryn thought to herself.

*********************************************************

“Mrs. Fisher-”

“Ryn. I am Ryn!” Ryn told the man with a firm voice, irritated by his condescending tone as well as his refusal to call Ryn by her given name. Ryn liked the second name Ben had given her--it seemed to fit her, and she liked the unintentional joke it made about who she truly was (Ryn Fisher from Finland who’s a pisces), once Ben and Maddie had explained it.

But the way this man, Alan Thomas, who was the editor of the local newspaper, used it when he spoke to her sounded like he was talking down to her ( _at_ her)--like she wasn’t an equal to him--and it rankled her gills (or at least the sides of her body where her gills were normally located) fiercely. She didn’t hesitate to remind him of who she was--the absolute ruler of three tribes. He, on the other hand, was only a partial leader among the humans of Bristol Cove, and not even a very important one at that.

They were all gathered together in a small meeting room at the Town Hall in Bristol Cove: the Town Council (including the recently elected mayor, a woman named Andrea Williams, and Ted Pownall), Sheriff Staub, and Beth Marzdan, who was serving as the representative for the hybrids.

Originally, they had discussed having the meeting on the computer to protect against the sickness, but they decided that, since they were going to be openly discussing Ryn and her people, it might be safer to meet in person so as to better ensure that no one from the outside was watching or listening to them. Even though they were talking about bringing Ryn’s people and the people of Bristol Cove together more closely, the secret still had to be protected from the outside world. It seemed to be the only thing they all agreed on. So now, they were all gathered together in a small meeting room at the town hall where everyone was trying their best to sit as far away from each other as they could.

This meeting had been going on for the past two hours and it has been difficult from the start; tensions were starting to run high. There were rumors that the sickness--The “Simian Flu” as the humans called it--had appeared in a nearby town and everyone was afraid that it might find its way to Bristol Cove. So naturally, when Ryn pitched her idea to them, it caused something of an uproar. The way they were talking about it, a few of the council members were certain that they were on the verge of the entire town being destroyed on two fronts: the sickness and her people.

“Ryn,” that was Mayor Williams, who spoke to her with a tone that conveyed a little more respect to her as an equal. Not surprising since she was (technically) the leader of the humans in Bristol Cove. “Please look at this from our perspective. What you’re suggesting would be a very risky undertaking for everyone involved, your people as well as ours. Right now, the truth about you is just a rumor--a true one, but a rumor nonetheless--and so long as it stays that way, we can deny it to anyone who might have ill intentions towards you and your people. That includes anyone here in town.

“But if we go through with your idea of a ‘human-mermaid relations center’, we’ll have to reveal the secret to the public, and we don’t know for certain how they’ll react. I know that many people in town have taken a liking to you, but we know that there are still many others who aren’t as friendly. They might try and leak your existence to the rest of the world for fame and fortune, or they might try and attack you outright as retribution for what’s happened recently. It would be a very big risk to take.”

“Not to mention it would be very expensive financially for us here in town, even if it did work.” Alan chimed in again unhelpfully, and Ryn seriously had to fight down the urge to strangle him. From the look on Mayor Williams’ face beneath her mask, she was feeling the same way.

“Not as expensive as the price that’s already been paid in blood by both sides from all of us trying to live as if our worlds are separate from each other,” Helen retorted, her voice just as firm and unyielding as Ryn’s. “And we’d be taking an even greater risk of history potentially repeating itself in this town if we allow it to continue. I think recent events over the past few years have proven that.”

Ryn knew that Helen was talking about what had been happening among the humans for some time now. Every day for the past two years since Ben disappeared, things seemed to be getting worse and worse on land. Not only were sickness and natural disasters killing many humans, but they were also fighting and killing each other. What exactly they were fighting about was difficult for Ryn to tell by now since the causes of their conflicts seem to multiply by the day. However, there was one overarching cause for the violence that Ryn could understand perfectly, and which seemed to quickly be becoming the sole source of conflict now: food.

She and Maddie had seen on the news how the places where humans grew all of the plants and animals for their food were starting to be affected by numerous catastrophes. Storms, hot summers, and blights were outright killing herds and crops, and with so many humans dying of the sickness, there weren’t enough people to tend to and harvest them, which meant that entire fields were being left to rot out in the sun.

This, coupled with the turmoil that was already taking place, had resulted in huge food shortages in many parts of the country and the world that was feeding into the larger cycle of chaos as everyone scrambled to hold onto what was left before it all disappeared.

Ryn wasn’t sure if what was happening could be called a war, there didn’t appear to be any sides that she could recognize anymore, but she had no other word to describe what was happening: the humans were all at war with each other because they were running out of food on land.

So far, things were still peaceful in Bristol Cove since they still had access to food from the sea and local small-time farmers who had managed to avoid the problems plaguing the larger ones to the east. But Ryn was afraid that, in time, something might happen that would break that peace and the people here would turn on each other, or worse, something might happen that would lead to another conflict between her people and the humans.

That’s why her plan had to work. In her heart, Ryn knew that the only way for any of them to survive was for everyone to come together as one.

“I’m sorry, but, I thought that keeping our worlds separate was the whole point of this little secret council,” said Mrs. Lee, the woman who managed the local supermarket. “Your people stay in the ocean, we stay on land, and the only time we see or interact with each other is during life-and-death emergencies. Didn’t you say that there was a town up in Alaska that had a system like that that’s worked for years?”

“They’re currently in the process of reaching out to each other more directly and integrating their two groups together,” Helen explained to her. “They’ve realized that if either of our species are going to survive what’s happening right now, we need to work together. Because it will affect all of us.”

It was at this point that Marissa decided to speak up for the first time since the meeting started. “But they aren’t having to deal with recent incidents of violence in their town. You, yourselves, have admitted that the one who killed Sean McClure is still out there and that he likes to come into town a lot. I can’t imagine that people in town will react very kindly if they ever find out about that.

“And what about the Song attack? A lot of people in town are still suffering from some form of brain damage, even after you used that recording to heal them. How are we going to justify bringing more of your kind into town if many of them are essentially the source of people’s injuries.”

“The same way I will convince my people to live alongside the humans who are responsible for our suffering,” Ryn said, trying to contain her growing frustration and anger. “Because of humans, we have less food and we cannot make babies. Our home is full of garbage and poison. We live for a long time and we have long memories--we remember what life in the ocean was like before you caused all this--and we remember how you humans once killed so many of us that the ocean was red with our blood.”

Ryn knew that trying to guilt the council into agreeing with her by bringing up the massacre was a bit underhanded considering that they had nothing to do with what their ancestors did, but she was desperate. As much as she believed in their capacity for good, Ryn knew that, of the two groups, the humans were the greatest threat to her plans for peace. 

Her people followed her (mostly) without question and she knew she could always physically confront any unruly individuals to bring them back in line, but humans were another matter altogether. They might live together in large numbers, but they did not live together as one tribe, and they didn’t have anything close to resembling an actual leader (Mayor Williams seemed like a good woman but Ryn wasn’t sure if she was the right person to lead the humans during these troubled times and keep them united). This made them all chaotic and unpredictable in Ryn’s eyes and that was the last thing she wanted because she knew that chaos among the humans was likely to lead to violence. Regardless of whether they committed that violence against her people or each other didn’t matter to Ryn; she would lose loved ones either way.

It was this aspect of unpredictability that worried Ryn the most because it made it hard for her to know for certain whether or not she could trust in an alliance between her tribes and _all_ of the humans of Bristol Cove, not just the few that she knew closely.

If her plan was going to work (it _must_ work), she needed to make sure that all of the humans (or at the very least a vast majority of them) were on the same page as her. If she couldn’t do that, there was always going to be a possibility that someone amongst them might be able to turn the rest against her people. So, she figured, the best way to get all of the humans on her side, was to get all of their leaders on her side. If the best way to do that meant her having to play dirty in order to convince them, then so be it. The children of both species who came after all of them were gone would thank her for it.

"Ryn is right," said Eliot, the man who owned the movie theater and who always smiled warmly towards Ryn. "What happened to our people here in town a few years ago was done in response to what we ourselves have done to the merpeople and their home over the past hundred and fifty years, and we can’t ignore that.

"I'm not saying that what they did was right or justified--Sean and Dale were my friends as much as they were all of yours’ and they didn't deserve to die. But I'm not going to pretend like the anger that motivated those events wasn't unfounded. And I'd be lying if I said that I personally couldn't sympathize with that kind of anger,” he said with a pointed look at a few of his fellow council members.

Ryn couldn't help but smile inwardly at the way a few of the humans on the council shifted uncomfortably at Eliot's words. He was playing the same game as she was--guilt the humans into agreeing with you by bringing up an uncomfortable topic. Eliot was a Native American like Maddie's father (although he had once told Ryn that he belonged to a people from the east called the Lakota, instead of the Haida), and Ryn knew that he was speaking about how his own people had been killed and driven from their lands by soldiers so that other humans could take it for themselves (something she had learned from reading books with Maddie). By bringing it up to the council in comparison with the history of Ryn’s people, the “old man”, as many people in town called him (although he honestly didn’t really look that old), was helping to sway the council into supporting Ryn’s cause.

Eliot continued speaking. “Both sides have hurt each other and spilled innocent blood, and both will have to agree to bury the hatchet in order for there to be peace, but we’re the ones who have caused the most harm over the longest time, and it was us who spilled first blood back then. Because of that, _WE_ need to be the ones who make the first gestures of peace. _WE_ need to prove to the people of the sea that we’re willing to change, and that we won’t repeat the mistakes of the past.

“If we don’t, then the fighting and the killing will continue until one side destroys the other, and I don’t know about you all, but I like living in a world where mermaids are real. Ryn’s idea seems like the perfect first step towards rebuilding that bond of trust that once existed between us and them, and I think that we should give it our full support.”

Ryn felt a great burst of affection bloom in her chest for this man. She honestly hadn’t expected for anyone on the council to fully support her the way he was right now, not even Ted. But out of all the humans present, he definitely seemed like the one who would be the most likely to stand with her and her family. Everyone who knew him had nothing but kind and positive things to say about him, and even the ones who didn’t know him knew at least of his ongoing efforts to help the community. He always said that his drive-in theater idea had less to do with keeping his business afloat and more to do with bringing people together in some small way during these troubled times, and it was just one of many little community projects that he had either come up with himself or threw his support behind.

That kindness and his dedication to serving a cause bigger than himself reminded her of Ben and Maddie in many ways.

This thought caused her to look over at Ted, one of the few council members who hadn’t spoken up yet during this meeting. As if sensing her gaze, he looked over and the two of them locked eyes for a moment.

Ryn gave him a hard look that she hoped would convey to him what she was thinking--he promised that he would help her and her people, for Ben, and he had yet to make good on his promise.

It must have worked because he was the next to speak up. “I agree with Helen and Eliot. Too many innocent people have died because we’ve chosen to remain ignorant. Too many have died because we allowed ourselves to forget the past.

“I understand all of your concerns about this, especially with all the problems we’re already facing from the Simian Flu, because they’re also my concerns in many ways. This will be a huge risk for our community. But I think that we’ll be taking an even greater risk if we continue to do nothing. My family made their fortune on risks--everytime the fishing boats went out, we’d pin our future on them bringing in a good catch, and, for better or worse, we’re still here.”

He turned his gaze away from the rest of the council so that he was once again locking eyes with Ryn. “I think this is another risk that I’d be willing to take.”

_For Ben._

The words were unspoken, but she heard them loud and clear, along with the implication of the conditional aspect of his help. That was fine. So long as he kept his word, she would accept his support, regardless of whether or not it was genuine.

“We don’t have to rush into it, and we don’t have to start telling everyone until we’re certain it's going to work, but we can at least start to make plans on how we’re going to make it work,” Beth said, trying to reassure the last few members of the council who were still undecided. “And when we’re confident that our people and Ryn’s people are ready, we’ll bring them in on it, and everyone will play a part in making it work. No one will have too much power over the others.”

Ryn nodded her head furiously in agreement. “Yes! I want this to be something we all do together, and I promise you, I will not let my people hurt any of the people in town. We are going through hard times of our own in the ocean; the tribes that I lead are having to learn how to live with each other without fighting. They can learn how to live with humans as well.

“Besides, most of my people will want to stay in the ocean. It is our true home. They will only come to land when they need to, and not many will want to stay forever. This center will not cost you too much and we can always find something better to replace it in the future.”

There were a few more grumblings among the council, but nobody else had anything else to add to the argument, positive or negative.

“Then I guess, all that remains is for all of us to take a vote,” Mayor Williams said.

“All in favor of the eventual creation of a human-mermaid community relations center?”

Ryn, Helen, Beth, Ted, Eliot, and Mayor Williams all raised their hands.

“All opposed?” Alan and Mrs. Lee raised their hands. Marissa abstained, although her inner conflict on the matter was written on her face, clear as day.

“Then I guess that’s settled. If there isn’t anything else we need to discuss, I think we can adjourn for the day.”

Ryn couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief. She couldn’t believe that the council had actually accepted her idea!

As the council members all began to file out of the meeting room, Ryn went over to intercept Ted before he was able to leave.

“Thank you,” she told him. “Ben would be proud of you for helping us.”

“Yeah, I’m sure he probably would,” he said to her in a guarded and stiff tone. “But I have to admit that it’s hard for me to sit here and say that I’ll work with the…...people…....who caused his death.” 

Ryn already knew how Ben’s father felt about her and her people, but she had to admit that it stung her more than she thought it would at the unspoken implication in the tone of his voice and the hard glare that he leveled at her as he spoke. He didn’t say it, but she knew that, when he was talking about her people causing Ben’s death, he was really talking about her. He blamed her for it.

Part of her couldn’t help but agree with him.

“I never wanted to hurt Ben,” she explained to Ted, trying to shove down her sadness. “What happened between us….I wish it had been different. I know that my Song hurt him, made him do things, but he wanted to help me and my people even before we fell in love. He risked his life taking the cells to help his mother. He….he died, saving my daughter’s life. I know that he did those things himself because he wanted to and not because of me--I didn’t make him.”

“Yeah, I’m sure he did. But try explaining that to my wife,” he said before walking away from her, the grief and resentment clear in his voice. Ryn let him leave; she knew there was nothing else that she could say.

She went back over to Helen, who appeared to have been in the middle of having a friendly conversation with Eliot. A _very_ friendly conversation.

“Hey. Everything okay?” she asked Ryn concernedly, having noticed her talking with Ted, although her attention still remained mostly on Eliot. Eliot, meanwhile, never took his eyes off of Helen.

Despite the emotional turmoil she felt from her encounter with Ted, Ryn couldn’t help but smile at the clear attraction between the two of them.

“Okay, yes.”

Ryn turned to Eliot, who had managed to tear his admiring gaze away from Helen to face her and greet her properly. “Thank you, for speaking up for me and my people,” she told him.

“It was my pleasure,” he said to her with another one of those friendly smiles. “I’m sorry some of the other council members gave you such a hard time. They mean well (well, most of them) but sometimes they need a little nudge to remind them that they already know what the right thing to do is.”

“I hope my people listen to me when I tell them what we are planning, or I will need to do more than ‘nudge’,” she said to them.

“I’m sure you’ll be able to win them over,” Helen reassured her. “They respect you after you defeated Tia and they know you’ve also got a mean right hook.” Ryn hummed and nodded her head in agreement.

She then pulled out her phone to check the time and saw that it was almost time for Maddie’s shift to be over. Almost time for her surprise.

“I have to go and meet Maddie,” she told the both of them. “It was nice to see you again, Eliot.”

“The pleasure is all mine, Ryn,” he said to her.

She and Helen exchanged a quick hug goodbye before Ryn left the two of them to continue talking. She made her way downstairs to the main floor of the town hall and walked out the lobby onto the street outside. The weather outside was pleasant and mild, with a slight breeze in the air. It was getting closer to autumn; the leaves were starting to change. 

Once again, she noticed that the number of people moving around outside was smaller than it used to be when she first arrived in town. It was strange. A part of her used to not like being constantly surrounded by humans who seemed intent on invading her personal space and making as much noise as possible. But now, with so many people having left, and the town becoming emptier and quieter as a result, a part of her couldn’t help but feel a little sad at the loss of what had become a familiar aspect of life on land.

Ryn shook her head to clear her mind of those morose thoughts, her long hair swishing around her face. Today had been long and stressful so far and she desperately needed a pick-me up.

Thankfully, she knew the perfect source of one.

*********************************************************************

When Ryn got to the MRC, the first thing she noticed was all the _noise_!

The afternoon air was filled with the deafening barks and roars of dozens of surly sea lions. As she made her way into the facility proper, she saw them all lounging around on the docks. There were so many of them that she nearly had to step over a few that were laying right in the middle of her path. Thankfully, most of them were wild ones who hadn’t yet gotten used to her, so they got out of the way when she approached (although not without making an awful racket first).

She saw Jerry near the edge of the dock, near the pens, feeding Sitka and Hazy, and went over to him. “Hello, Jerry.”

“Hey, Ryn! How’s it hanging?” he said to her with his usual chipper voice, although she could tell from his tone of voice that he was stressed out.

“They are hanging good. Is Maddie here?” she asked him while leaning down to pet Sitka who had waddled over to her to say “hi.”

“Uhhh, yeah. She’s in the warehouse, talking to a few of Robb’s people. I think they’re finishing up soon, though.”

She decided to wait with him outside while Maddie finished her business. Looking around her at all the sea lions who, for whatever reason, had decided to take refuge here, and knowing that Maddie was working with people who were actively looking for a way to get all of the garbage out of the ocean, she felt a swell of pride for her human mate. She knew that her job was more than just difficult--at times it seemed impossible--and it just seemed to get harder and harder. But Maddie and her team never gave up, they never stopped trying to help make things better for the ocean, and she knew that there were other humans who worked just as hard to protect the land.

If there was ever proof that there was good in humans, Maddie and people like her were it.

She heard the sound of a group of people leaving the Ocean Cleanup Building and looked over to see Maddie walking out with them.

Maddie seemed to know that she was here already without Ryn even needing to say or do anything to catch her attention, because she turned her gaze towards her. Ryn could tell from the way Maddie’s eyes were scrunched up that she was smiling at her from beneath the mask and waved at her as a form of silent greeting. Ryn smiled and waved back at her.

She could barely hear what Maddie was saying to the other people over the raucous din of the sea lions, but she could hear enough to know that they were wrapping up their meeting.

Finally, a few minutes later, they were finished and Maddie came over to give Ryn a proper greeting.

“Hey, baby!” she said, as she came over to greet Ryn. She leaned down to give her a quick hello kiss after taking off her mask. “How’d it go?”

Ryn couldn’t let help but to let out a sigh of exhaustion at being reminded of her earlier meeting. “Not as good as I hoped, but I got them to agree to make our center.”

“Ryn that’s awesome!” Maddie said, wrapping her up in a big hug that Ryn couldn’t help but melt into. She could sense both her wife’s joy and her relief at hearing the good news.

“How was your meeting,” she asked Maddie when they pulled away from each other.

“Oh, it was alright. Just going over the progress of the past few months, trying to figure out how we’re gonna go forward in the future. I might have to have a meeting with a few investors to convince them to keep giving us money. You know, boring human stuff,” Maddie told her.

“If it helps the ocean, then it isn’t boring.” Although she had to admit that it actually did sound pretty boring.

“Well, it doesn’t matter either way now, because we’re free for the rest of the day, and that means I’m all yours and you're all mine. Are you ready for your surprise?”

“Yes, I am.” “Come with me then.”

Maddie took her by the hand and brought her into the main building of the Center. When they got inside, Maddie reached up into a cabinet over one of the counters, pulled out a small square basket, and showed it to Ryn.

“I thought that we might be able to have a little picnic date on the beach. You know, get out of the apartment for a while and get some fresh-air. Lie back and listen to the ocean and not think about anything except each other,” she said.

Ryn felt her heart swell with emotion. She couldn’t imagine a better way to spend this beautiful afternoon after such a stressful morning, than relaxing outside with Maddie.

The two of them then got into Maddie’s jeep and drove to a secluded little beach where the younger people of Bristol Cove liked to gather together. Ryn recognized it as the place where she had killed and eaten on a shark only a few hours before coming to land for the first time to look for her sister--a few hours before she first met Ben.

Maddie had once told her that she and Ben had actually been at this beach when she was in the water--that they had found the discarded head of the shark she had killed. She’d been _that_ close to meeting the loves of her life. If she had been able to go back and tell her younger self how much her life was going to change that day, she probably wouldn’t have believed it. All that had mattered to her then was finding her sister.

Now, she couldn’t imagine her life being any other way.

After Maddie finished parking the car, she and Ryn got out, Maddie grabbed the picnic basket from the backseat, and the two of them began walking towards the beach to find a nice spot to set up their picnic. Ryn saw a small group of young humans, teenagers, on the other side of the beach from where they were, who were hanging out and listening to music. She and Maddie both silently agreed to find a spot that was a distance away from them so they could enjoy their meal in peace and moved away from them.

They eventually found a nice spot and the two of them worked together to lay out their picnic blanket. Once that was done, they sat down together, and Maddie started pulling out the food she had prepared for the two of them. Ryn shifted in place on the blanket so as to readjust the long skirt she was wearing so that she was sitting more comfortably and took a look at what Maddie had brought. She could smell the scent of tuna salad (presumably for her) and ham and cheese (presumably for Maddie). She turned out to be right when Maddie passed her a tuna salad sandwich from the little ice chest she brought with her.

The two of them enjoyed their food and made small-talk while listening to the sound of the waves and the music that was drifting over to them from the other side of the beach. The warm wind coming off of the water mingled perfectly with the cool autumn air, creating nice, mild weather to be outside in.

Yes, after having to put up with such a stressful morning, this was the perfect remedy. Spending a beautiful afternoon outside in the company of her beautiful wife. The only thing that would make it even better is if her children and Ben were here to enjoy it with them.

Ryn finished her sandwich quickly since she was pretty hungry and when she saw that Maddie was nearly finished with hers, she scooted over on the blanket so that she was right next to Maddie and moved to lay her head down on her lap. She waited a second when Maddie asked her to so that she could finish the last of her sandwich and readjust herself on the blanket so that she was sitting comfortably before Ryn laid down.

Once she was ready, Maddie invited Ryn to lay her head down in her lap and Ryn was more than happy to accept.

After she finished settling in, Maddie’s fingers immediately moved to start tenderly stroking Ryn’s hair. Ryn closed her eyes and let out a hum of contentment as she did.

“You are love,” she told Maddie, her voice barely a whisper. She blindly reached over near where she knew the food was and managed to pick out a single strawberry which she then reached up and offered to Maddie. She felt Maddie take a bite out of it--carefully so as not to catch Ryn’s fingers between her teeth--after which she brought what was left of the strawberry down to her own mouth so as to finish it off.

She didn’t even need to open her eyes to know that Maddie was smiling down at her after hearing that. “You are love, too,” she said after she finished swallowing her bit of strawberry.

Maddie then began to quietly half-sing/half-hum under her breath while continuing to stroke Ryn’s hair. Ryn had heard Maddie sing a few times before and, like Maddie’s big, happy smiles, it made Ryn’s heart skip a beat at how beautiful it was. Everything about Maddie was beautiful to her, and it just made her fall in love with her all over again every time.

She continued to listen to Maddie sing.

“And I think to myself, what a wonderful world……Yes, I think to myself…....what a wonderful world.”

Ryn knew that song.

“Why did you sing that?” she asked Maddie.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I was just sitting here with you and my brain started to wander off, I noticed how nice today is, and I guess it just sorta came to me.”

Ryn hummed in contemplation. “I heard Ben sing it once.”

“Really? When?”

“The day I first brought Hope to land after she was born. While we were waiting for you and Helen to come over, Ben was holding her and he started to sing that song to her. It helped her fall asleep--like the lullaby about the star.”

She had opened her eyes to talk to Maddie, which meant that she could see the frown beginning to form on her face. It instantly made Ryn regret bringing up Ben. She knew how much Maddie still mourned for him as well.

“I wish that I had been there to see that,” she said. Ryn immediately reached up to hold Maddie’s hand, the one that had been stroking her hair, and squeezed it in her’s.

“He never stopped loving you,” she said as she sat up so that she could look Maddie in the eye and reassure her. “Even though he was sad that you two weren’t together, he still loved you.”

“And I never stopped loving him,” Maddie said, clearly trying to reassure herself as well as Ryn. “The same way I’ll never stop loving you.”

The two of them then kissed each other with the same infinite tenderness that they had always shared between them. When they broke the kiss, they stayed close to each other, pressing their foreheads together the same as they did earlier this morning.

Suddenly, Ryn felt a powerful wave of emotion wash over her that seemed to come out of nowhere. She didn’t know how to describe it; it felt like fear, sadness, grief and frustration all rolled up into one. She could sense that it was coming from Maddie through their Song connection.

“I miss you, _so_ much when you’re gone,” said Maddie, her voice getting choked up with emotion. “I’m so afraid that you won’t come back. I’m afraid that I’ll lose you forever like Ben, that something terrible will happen to you or the kids, or you won’t want to leave the ocean, and that you’ll forget about me or something. Part of me wishes you could just stay here with me on land all the time--and I hate myself for thinking that because I know that the ocean is your home and I’m being selfish--

“No! You are _NOT_ selfish Maddie! You are the least selfish person I have ever met! I could _never_ forget you or Ben, and my home will always be right here with you!” Ryn told her firmly, trying to keep her own emotions in check. Why was Maddie saying these things? What had caused her to become so upset? Surely it couldn’t have just been her bringing up Ben. “Whether that is on land or in the water, I do not care! So long as I am with you. That is my choice; it is what I want, and I will never regret it so long as I live.”

Ryn cupped Maddie’s face and brushed her thumb across her cheek, wiping away the tears that had formed and which were now trailing down Maddie’s face. If there was one thing in this world that she absolutely hated, it was seeing the people she loved, especially her mates or her children, in pain. Ryn’s comforting touch seemed to have startled Maddie in some strange way because she suddenly jolted a little like she had just been shocked and blinked her eyes as if she was waking up from a nap.

“I...I’m so sorry, I don’t know what came over me, I just…I...” Maddie stuttered, she seemed to be confused about what had just happened.

“Why are you sorry? You did nothing wrong,” Ryn told her, equally confused by Maddie’s sudden outburst, but not once thinking that she was wrong for expressing her feelings.

“I know, it's just….I got this weird feeling all of a sudden and I’m still thinking about that dream I had last night--it’s had me on edge all day--and you’re going back to the water soon, and the babies are out there, and if there _is_ something wrong down there, I’m stuck here on land like last time with Tia, and that’s how we lost Ben, and it's all just…” she stopped to take a breath like she was trying to force herself to slow down and relax. “I’m just worried about my family being safe. I know I probably sound like a crazy woman.”

“No, not at all,” Ryn said to her with absolute certainty. “You sound like a good wife and mother. I do the same thing. When I am on land, I am also worried about what is happening to Hope, Eva, and Little Ben in the water, along with the rest of my people, and when I am in the water I am worried about you. There is nothing wrong about how you feel.”

Maddie smiled gently at Ryn’s words, seemingly reassured by them, which made Ryn happy.

“It also doesn’t help that today was absolutely insane with all the damn sea lions overrunning the Center,” she said to Ryn, clearly trying to lighten the mood a bit. “Jerry nearly lost his hand several times today trying to feed them all.” Ryn couldn’t help but laugh at the mental image of Jerry trying to simultaneously care for and fend off a bunch of grumpy sea lions.

“Well, they better not have tried to hurt my Maddie, or I will remind them of how much of a predator I still am.”

“Hmmmm, don’t worry babe, I have a lot of experience dealing with dangerous creatures of the sea who want to bite me,” Maddie said with a suggestive tone and a sly smirk on her face. Ryn felt a flutter go through her stomach at the sight of it.

Ryn was about to lean in to kiss that smirk off of her face when she heard a shriek from the other side of the beach--a reminder that they weren’t alone out here. A few of the teenagers were charging out into the water and started splashing and wrestling around, making an awful lot of noise. More than Ryn was willing to tolerate to be honest when she and Maddie were trying to have a peaceful afternoon.

Maddie seemed to pick up on Ryn’s displeasure at the sudden ruckus. “Wanna head back home? We can order Chinese food and have a Disney movie marathon?”

“Yes, I would like that very much.”

The two of them then packed up their picnic blanket and all of the leftover food and brought it all to the car so as to head home for the evening. While they were walking back, Ryn noticed that a couple of the teenagers had swum farther out into the water while most of the others stayed in the shallows. The lot of them were all still shrieking and laughing without a care in the world.

Ryn had already gotten into the car and buckled up when she looked over and saw that Maddie had suddenly frozen in place. She had that same look on her face as she did this morning when she was describing the Bad Things attacking her underwater--a look of pure fear.

“What’s wrong?” Ryn asked her worriedly.

“I don’t know. I just got a bad feeling all of a sudden like-”

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!”

The both of them turned their heads rapidly towards the source of the noise. It had come from the water. One of the teens had just let out a loud, piercing scream that couldn’t possibly be mistaken as anything except a scream of absolute terror.

Ryn could faintly see what was happening. One of the two teens who had swum farther out than the others (she thinks it’s a boy) was being thrashed around in the water, tossing back and forth like something underneath the surface was pulling them around. That’s when Ryn realized something _was_ beneath the surface (she could make out a dark shadow in the water) and it had taken hold of the teen. The loud scream had come from the girl who was swimming with him and who was only a few feet away from what was happening. Then, Ryn saw the boy go under the water in what looked like a geyser of red water. She knew it wasn’t red water.

Ryn and Maddie immediately took off back down towards the beach, running as fast as they could to the area where a few of the teens were still gathered together on the sand. The rest of them who were in the shallows were trying to get back to shore as quickly as they could, running or swimming--whichever got them back to land the quickest.

Maddie waded into the first few feet of water and began trying to help pull people out and get them to land faster.

“GET OUT OF THE WATER! MOVE! FASTER! NO RYN! STAY ON LAND! CALL XANDER! CALL THE SHERIFF! HURRY! EVERYONE, GET OUT OF THE WATER!”

Ryn pulled out her phone as fast as she could--so fast she nearly dropped it-- and dialed 911.

“911. What’s your emergency?” a voice on the phone asked.

“HELLO, YES! Send the police to the beach, send Xander! Somebody is hurt!” Ryn yelled into the phone.

“Ma’am, please calm down and talk slowly. I need to know which beach you are at so I can send first responders to your location….” the voice (was it a woman?) said to her but Ryn had stopped listening. She had just seen something that caused her heart to drop down to her feet.

Maddie had waded even further out into the water to help the girl who had swum farther out than the others get back to shore. Ryn could see the dark shadow in the water that had attacked the boy swimming towards them rapidly. It was swimming towards Maddie!

“MADDIE!” Ryn screamed out in anguish, trying to warn her beloved of the danger.

Maddie looked behind her and saw the shadow coming towards her and, immediately, she and the girl began to run/swim as fast as they possibly could back towards the beach. All the while the shadow was closing in.

Ryn immediately ran into the water, heedless of the potential consequences, to try and either pull her out, or to sacrifice herself by taking on whatever it was so as to give Maddie more time to escape.

Right away, Ryn could feel the ocean water beginning to work its effects on her. She could feel her skin beginning to tingle and itch like someone was trying to peel it off. She fought through the pain and the discomfort as her entire world narrowed down to one overwhelming purpose: get to Maddie.

She waded in until the water was up to her waist and Maddie was only a few feet away from her, the girl still tucked under her own arm. Ryn reached out her hand as far as she could to her wife and a few seconds later she felt Maddie’s hand clenched in hers. With every ounce of her considerable strength, Ryn pulled Maddie out of the water with her as hard and as quickly as she could. She heard Maddie cry out in pain, no doubt due to the fact that her arm was being wrenched by Ryn’s untempered strength. Normally, this would stop Ryn in her tracks out of concern for her mate, but her only concern right now was getting Maddie out and away from the ocean, not to mention she was struggling to fight through her own pain as her body continued trying to transform in the presence of saltwater. Once she was certain Maddie was safe, she would tend to and soothe her beloved’s wounds herself--once she knew that Maddie was safe.

Before she knew it, they were all on land again--Ryn, Maddie, and the girl--along with all of the other teens. However, Ryn didn’t let go of Maddie’s hand, and she didn’t stop moving until she was certain that she couldn’t feel any waves washing over any part of her.

Once she realized that they weren’t anymore, Ryn collapsed on the sand and fought through the painful sensations of the transformation. She could feel Maddie coming to her and hovering over her protectively, trying her best to shield Ryn from prying eyes, while also providing comfort. Ryn hoped that she hadn’t been in the water long enough for a full transformation to be triggered; that she would start to revert back to a human once her body realized that she was still on land. If she fully transformed now, she’d have no choice but to go back to the water. She’d have to leave Maddie early and she’d have to face whatever was out there in the water right now.

Eventually though, the pain subsided and she could feel her body beginning to revert back to human form. Her skin was still tingling, but that mostly had to do with her clothes still being drenched. She wasn’t going to change.

“Ryn? Sweetheart are you okay?” Maddie asked her, her voice full of concern.

“Okay, yes,” Ryn assured her.

Ryn then proceeded to get up from the ground with Maddie’s help, brushing sand off of her clothes and face. It was in her hair too, but she’d have to take care of that later.

Once she was back up on her feet, she and Maddie turned back towards the group of drenched and frightened teenagers, now one short. The entire group had descended into bedlam with many of them yelling, crying, or sitting there in numb silence. A few of the more clear headed ones had gotten together and were doing their best to calm the girl who had been there when the boy was killed. She was in near hysterics, hyperventilating and looking like she was about to pass out. Her friends tried their best to help her and wrapped her up in a beach towel while also doing their best to ask her what had happened. She was still too much in shock to properly explain in precise detail, but there was one word that she kept saying over and over again to try and let her friends know what happened: “Sh…..Sha….Sha….”

Ryn didn’t need to hear the girl’s explanation though. Her eyes were locked on the water where the dark shape was still swimming near the surface. She could see that it was starting to leave this little secluded cove for the open ocean. It was difficult to make out exactly what it was, even for her sensitive eyes, but there was no mistaking that triangular fin cutting through the water before it disappeared beneath the waves.

The boy had been killed by one of her people’s age-old rivals.

_Shark._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did any of ya'll get the Jaws reference in the title? A little foreshadowing of the ending.
> 
> I hope ya'll enjoyed this chapter. Feel free to leave comments down below to let me know if ya'll did.
> 
> I also hope ya'll are all staying safe and healthy where ever you are in the world. Remember to take care of yourselves and to do things that make you feel happy and at peace.


	7. Harbinger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maddie receives a warning of what's to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's back, back, back. Back again!
> 
> I'm really sorry for making y'all wait so long for this one. I just couldn't find the time or the right mental space to sit down and write, and when I did try, it would take me nearly an hour to create a paragraph. Also, my mental state certainly wasn't helped by the stress of the U.S. Presidential election back in November. But Trump lost so it was all worth it.
> 
> I really hope that y'all enjoy this chapter. I know the holidays are pretty much over by now, but I still like to think of this as my gift to you wonderful people!

Maddie could honestly remember hangovers that had been more pleasant than the headache she was currently dealing with right now.

Three hours. For _three hours_ she’s been stuck in a meeting with the mayor, Ted, and Marissa, all of whom seemed to have developed a serious case of selective hearing.

“For the _fifth_ time; It. Was. A. _Shark!_ The mermaids had nothing to do with it! I saw the dorsal fin myself, and so did Ryn. It couldn’t have been anything else but a shark!” she said to them, emphatically.

The three members of the town council all looked at her with stunned faces, clearly shocked at her sudden outburst. She wouldn’t normally be so short or so rude with anyone, much less Marissa or the mayor, but she was honestly sick of their constant paranoia about the mermaids. No matter what she, Helen, or Xander said, or how much Ryn did to prove her loyalty to the the town, many on the council (and quite a few people in town that she knew of) just would not stop acting like Ryn was three seconds away from leading an army of Mers in burning down the whole of Bristol Cove. It infuriated Maddie to no end, not only because Ryn was her wife, but also because it hit a little too close to home for her as a black woman, and the kind of treatment she’d receive from society.

What certainly wasn’t helping her mood either was the fact that she was exhausted from spending the past two days working non-stop trying to figure out what the hell happened on that beach, while also still having to deal with all these seals and sea lions hanging around on the docks. So, yeah, she was a little cranky.

Plus, she really did have a nasty headache that had been steadily getting worse as the day went on.

“We haven’t had anything like this happen though,” Mayor Williams said.

“Of course we have. Four years ago we had a bump-and-bite incident down at Libby Beach.”

A “bump-and-bite” was when a shark is swimming along, literally bumps into something living, and bites into it on instinct. Maddie knew that sharks had bad eyesight and most attacks against humans were hit and runs that had more to do with the shark protecting its territory, or even just biting on accident, than it actually wanting to eat a person.

That clearly wasn’t the case in this instance though. Not only did the shark kill the boy, but it consumed him to the point that there was barely anything left of him to be buried.

Maddie wished that she could just write this off as another freak accident caused by a confused shark but something inside her just felt...off. It was like that feeling she’d been having for the past few weeks--the feeling that something was coming. On the beach, she knew something bad was going to happen right before it did, and a part of her knew that, no matter how hard she might try and deny it, what had happened was extremely unusual.

Marissa clearly shared her feelings and voiced her own doubts, “Maddie, I was there for that incident, and your dad and I dealt with many others prior to it. I’ve never seen anything like this happen before.”

“That’s probably because we’re dealing with a rogue,” Maddie quickly countered. “The medical examiner and I went over the body of the victim and, based on the bite radius of the wounds, it’s not any kind of shark that’s normally seen in the waters around here.”

“Just like in _Jaws_ ,” Ted interjected. “Are you trying to tell us that we might be dealing with a great white?”

Maddie couldn’t help but roll her eyes a little at Ted’s question--that movie got a lot more wrong about sharks than it got right--but at the same time she felt a mixture of humor and pain in her chest at the reference. She and her dad used to joke about that movie all the time after she got into marine biology. He’d always talk about how if a great white ever showed up in Bristol Cove, the two of them would go out to sea with some crazy fisherman to kill it, like Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss. He’d tell her that they’d be okay since their characters (the police chief and the marine biologist) survived the movie and saved the day.

She knew that he’d never actually want to go out and kill a shark like that, even if it did attack somebody. He was just letting out his inner nerd around her so that the two of them could bond over something she loved, and she loved him for it. 

“It might be, I’ll be honest,” she told him. “Great whites like to live near coastlines and they are responsible for more unprovoked attacks on humans than any other kind of shark, but they’re not man-eaters. We’re too bony for their liking. It’s why they prefer to eat seals and sea lions; they have all that meat and blubber.”

“So why didn’t it go after one of them?” Ted asked. “I mean, it's not like there’s a shortage of them around here.” He stuck his thumb back over his shoulder to indicate the sea lions that were still making themselves be heard outside on the docks. She didn’t need to be psychic to know that he, like a lot of other people in town, were starting to get irritated with their constant presence on all the beaches and docks. She knew that they were becoming a nuisance and a hindrance for the fishermen and the daysailers that would not be tolerated for much longer.

“I honestly don’t know. Maybe because they’ve been doing everything they can to stay out of the water, and the shark was desperate for something to eat. Odds are, once whatever is keeping the sea lions out of the water is gone and they go back, the shark will probably go back to hunting them.

“And before any of you ask, no, I still don’t know why the sea lions are all hanging out on land so much, but I can assure you that, as far as Ryn and I can tell, it has absolutely nothing to do with mermaids either.”

She could hear her frustration working its way into her voice again at having to explain all this to them and she forced herself to reign it back in. She already knew that some of the people in Bristol Cove had a mixed opinion of her; the last thing she needed was for everyone to start labeling her as a woman with an “attitude”.

“Look, I’m just as upset about what happened to that boy as you all are--probably more so because I was there, I watched it happen, and there was nothing I could do to save him. But unless it happens again, unless someone else gets hurt, I don’t think there’s any reason for us to start panicking. The best thing for us to do right now, is to just shut down the beaches for a few days, and keep everyone out of the water. Eventually, the shark will probably give up on trying to find food in this area and go somewhere else to hunt. 

“I promise you that we’ll be keeping an eye out for it on our end just to be sure, and if anything happens that’s out of the ordinary, you’ll be the first ones I call,” she said to them in her best “reasonable, reassuring scientist” voice.

When it seemed like they were giving her words serious consideration, Maddie ran her palm across her face in a show of exhaustion. The gesture was indeed genuine, but it was also a little bit exaggerated so that they would get the message that she wanted to end this meeting poste haste.

“I’m sorry you guys--it’s just . . . it’s been a long day, I’m exhausted, and my head is killing me. Can we please talk about this another time? I’ve still got a lot of other work to get done around here.”

Thankfully, they all agreed to her request and decided to call it for the day. Marissa and Mayor Williams both said their farewells and left Maddie’s office right away. Ted, however, stayed behind. He had a concerned look on his face that Maddie wasn't sure what to make of.

“Do you think it’s possible that the shark is what’s keeping the sea lions out of the water?” he asked her.

Maddie considered his question. She had to admit that the possibility had crossed her mind over the past two days, but it didn’t make sense to her in the bigger picture.

She shook her head at Ted and told him, “No, I don’t think so. One shark, even an abnormally aggressive great white, wouldn’t be nearly enough to cause this kind of behavior in the sea lions.

“Ryn’s going back to the water soon and she’s said that she’ll look into it with her people when she does.”

At the mention of Ryn’s impending return to the water, Maddie couldn’t help but feel a wave of melancholy wash over her. She had to admit that, of all Ben’s behaviors when it came to Ryn, his missing her and feeling of loss when she was gone was one that she could definitely relate to and understand. She wasn’t sure whether it was just the regular kind of yearning you’re supposed to feel for the one you love who’s been separated from you, or if it had to do with Ryn’s naturally seductive nature as a mermaid affecting her as a human. Either way, every time Ryn went back to the water, a secret, selfish part of Maddie was afraid that she would never come back to her--that Ryn would _choose_ not to come back to her--and wished Ryn could just stay on land with her forever.

Her worries must have been clear as day on her face because she saw Ted’s brow become furrowed and his look of concern deepen.

“Are you doing okay, Maddie?” he asks her.

Maddie wasn’t exactly sure how to respond. She and Ted weren’t exactly what you’d call “friends.”

“I’m doing just fine Ted,” she answered curtly, but not impolitely. “Why do you ask?”

“I’m just worried about you. I know you’ve been really busy with things here at the Center and….I know that you’ve probably still got what happened at the beach on your mind.”

“Oh, you mean the sixteen-year old kid who was ripped to shreds by a shark right in front of me?” she said sarcastically. “No, no that hasn’t been on my mind at all.”

Ted nodded his head in the way that most people did when they realized that they just asked an obvious question….but he was right. For the past two days, the shark attack was the only thing Maddie could really think about. The screams of those kids as they realized the danger they were in, and the sight of that boy being dragged under the water in a geyser of blood still haunted her thoughts. 

There were other things going on in her life, however, that were preoccupying her mind quite a bit, and they were concerning her just as much as the shark attack. One thing in particular: Ryn.

After that day on the beach, Ryn had become very quiet and withdrawn, and Maddie knew her wife well enough to know when she was giving serious thought to something. That something was usually going to be a drastic course of action that she knew might help in a dire situation, but that she was also uncertain about going through with.

Maddie had a sinking feeling that she knew what Ryn was thinking of doing. She could practically see the thoughts in Ryn’s head whenever the two of them sat together at the dinner table or when they went to bed at night.

Coupled with the dream she had that very morning of the...things...underwater and the feeling in her gut of something coming her way, there seemed to be only one reasonable conclusion for Maddie to draw.

There was something going on in the ocean, and Ryn was planning on going back early to confront it.

Ted had started talking again, interrupting her thoughts. “I know we were never really that close, your dad and I, but I still considered him a friend. I know how much he cared about this town and the people in it, and how much he cared about you and your mom. And Ben, well, anyone with eyes could see how much Ben cared about you. I know the both of them would hate to see you stressed out like this….” he paused for a moment, seemingly uncertain of what he wanted to say to her.

“I just, I just wanted to let you know that if you need anything, Elaine and I are here to help.”

Maddie honestly couldn’t believe her ears. Was he serious? For as long as she could remember, Ted Pownall had been a thorn in her side more often than not. Yeah, he might have promised to help her and Ryn on the council, and she knew he had taken something of a liking to her as Ben’s girlfriend, but that didn’t mean he still wasn’t the same man who nearly destroyed the local marine ecosystem _twice_ for a profit. So naturally she wasn’t about to buy into this whole “fatherly figure” routine he was trying to put on for her.

If anything, it was pissing her off even more than she already was--especially considering how he had spoken to Ryn earlier this week at the council meeting.

“Okay, you want to help me Ted? How about you start by keeping your mouth shut around my wife!” Maddie told him harshly.

He actually had the nerve to appear shocked at her words.

“Oh, you didn’t think Ryn would tell me about what you said to her at the council meeting?” she asked him rhetorically, not even bothering to hide the scathing tone in her voice.

“That….that’s not….” he stuttered. Maddie cut him off before he could come up with an excuse.

“Not what?” she asked him rhetorically. “You told Ryn that you found it hard to say that you’d work with the people who…..who killed Ben.”

Her words had gotten caught in her throat towards the end. Two years later and the fact that Ben was gone still struck her like a knife in the heart every time she was forced to acknowledge it out loud.

“But of course we all know that, by 'people', you really mean Ryn!”

Maddie could feel all the anger and frustration she had been feeling over the past couple of days with the sea lions, the shark attack, the council’s bullshit, her infuriating headache (which seemed to be reaching its apex) and, more than anything, Ryn’s impending return to the water, focusing into a fearsome lance of retribution aimed precisely at Ted Pownall. In her mind, he had become the physical avatar of all those things and more.

“Ever since she came here, Ryn has done nothing but to try and help to protect this town, and she still is to this day, even though it constantly puts her at odds with her people! You always make big talk about trying to help this town; about protecting it! If anyone needs protecting, it’s all of us from you and your family!

“Ryn and her people never would have even come to land in the first place if you and people like you weren’t constantly trying to ruin the ocean! You were the one who allowed the overfishing! You were the one who tried to get into bed with Klesco! YOU WERE THE ONE WHO GOT YOUR WIFE PARALYZED! 

“If that hadn’t happened, Ben never would have become so obsessed with trying to find a cure for her! He never would have injected himself with those stem cells, and he would still be here with us!”

By the end, she was full on shouting at him. She could feel tears streaming down her cheeks that she furiously tried to wipe away with the palm of her hand. She wasn’t sure if they were tears of anger or tears of grief--when it came to Ben’s absence and everything that revolved around it, the two feelings had become pretty much one and the same for her.

She looked back at Ted and saw his face; he looked like he’d just been hit in the face with a shovel, and Maddie couldn’t help but feel a little bit ashamed of herself. She knew that she had probably gone too far with that last one. 

Even if there was a grain of truth to everything she said, it was still a gross oversimplification of something that she knew was a lot more complex--no different than him trying to place all the blame on Ryn.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. Ted didn’t respond; he just sat back against one of the counters in the lab with his head hung low. She knew her words had struck home in the way she had intended them to when she said them.

Maddie swallowed down the lump in her throat, and tried to regain her composure; it wasn’t easy. This conversation was dredging up a lot of uncomfortable emotions for her and she would just as soon end it quickly, but she knew that she needed to resolve this issue with Ted.

“You and Elaine aren’t the only ones who miss him,” Maddie said, hugging herself in a vain attempt at self-reassurance. “Not a day goes by where Ryn and I don’t feel the pain of him being gone. Every day, we wish that he was still here with us, that he was a part of all this, of our lives. That he….was our husband, that he wa...was a father to Ryn’s children--our children.”

Saying those words out loud, acknowledging something that she had wanted for so long, but knew she would never get, nearly caused her composure to crumble again. But she held herself together in the way she had learned how to do all throughout her life when it came to her mom’s addiction.

“What happened to Ben, the circumstances that led to him…..winding up the way he did, was the result of a lot of things--and there’s plenty of blame to go around. Yeah, Ryn is to blame for some of it--she Sang to him the night they met and that’s what put him on that path in the first place. The other Mers are to blame because it was _their_ war that Ben died in. I’m to blame because I chose to put distance between him and I when I shouldn’t have--I wasn’t there when he needed me. You and Elaine are definitely to blame for a lot of things.

“But Ben is also to blame for what happened as well. Even if the Song damaged his mind, he still chose to do what he did of his own free will, and he knew that what he was doing with those stem cells was wrong; that’s why he tried to hide it from everyone. He chose to go out there, he chose to take part in the fighting…….and he chose to do the right thing in rescuing Hope, in helping to protect us and this town.”

Ted said nothing, he just looked up at her with sadness in his eyes. Maddie knew that look well--it was the look of someone struggling to come to terms with a loss and failing miserably. She’d seen that look in her own eyes many times over the past few years whenever she looked in a mirror.

“My point is….that you need to accept the fact that what happened was no one person’s fault. I know that you think you're dealing with a kind of pain that most people could never understand--but I do. You and I, we were both at odds with Ben when he died, but we still loved him. Do you really think I would have married Ryn, that I would love her as much as I do, if I thought she was responsible for killing my soulmate?

"Nobody is to blame, and everyone is to blame. But none of that matters anymore. As much as it hurts for us to admit it, Ben is gone, and we need to find a way to keep moving forward in our lives, to find something to live for no matter how much it hurts,” Maddie said to him.

Ted continued to remain silent, but he nodded his head slightly as if in agreement with her. Maddie could see in the set of his shoulders that he was wallowing in his own anguish at the loss of his firstborn son. There wasn’t really anything else that she could think of to say to him, so the two of them just stood there in silence. Their shared grief seemingly connecting them to each other, but also driving a wedge between them.

Finally, Ted straightened up and started to make his way towards the exit. Before he walked out the door, he said to her, “Like I said, if you need anything, I’m here to help.” 

Then he was gone, leaving Maddie alone with her thoughts and her broken heart (and her splitting headache).

She looked at her watch and saw that it was nearly five o’clock--her shift was nearly over. She hadn’t been lying to the council when she said that there was a lot of work for her to get done, but she didn’t really see much point in throwing herself into any of the projects her team were currently working on, and her encounter with Ted had put her in no mood to focus on anything more complex than hunting down the nearest bottle of aspirin.

 _Why can’t I get rid of this goddamn headache!?_ she thought to herself as she looked through one of the cabinets in the center for the first-aid kit.

Then the world around her spun away and melted into a blurry haze--like whenever she got a headrush from standing up too fast.

Suddenly Maddie found herself in the earth, beneath the earth. 

She was walking through a cold, dark tunnel deep underground--so deep underground, and so far from the light of the sun, she was amazed that she wasn’t immediately crushed by the massive amount of rock and minerals surrounding her, or that she didn’t freeze in the subzero temperatures of the tunnel. The air tasted stale and lifeless when she breathed it in, and the silence within the tunnel was absolute--the only thing she could hear was her own breathing and the pounding of her heart.

She knew this cavern. She’d been here many times before, and everytime it was the same. The tunnel would lead to a chamber, and in the chamber, _He_ would be waiting for her. Every time she came here, he was always waiting for her.

She couldn’t see a thing in the pitch darkness--there was no way for Maddie to tell if she was making any forward progress. For all she knew, she might have gone only a few feet, or she had been walking for miles. How could she tell in the pitch black? She had no idea for how long she had been travelling down, down into the earth--time dragged on into an abyss that seemed to be as endless as the tunnel she was travelling through. Seconds became hours, and hours became days, stretching on without end. But she knew that they would eventually end. They always did before.

That still didn’t stop her from being afraid.

She was beginning to fear that she would be walking through the eternal darkness beneath the earth forever when she felt the air around her shift. Now, instead of the tight, narrow channel of air that she had previously felt traveling through the tunnel as she moved through it, the air became still. More open. She could hear the sounds of her footsteps echoing farther away from her than they had before. She had walked out into a more open space.

She had arrived in the chamber.

For a few seconds nothing happened. Then, she saw two little sparks of flame ignite in front of her, like a pair of matches being lit. Those little flames grew steadily larger and larger until they looked like little suns. Those little suns then started to approach her, coming closer and closer. As they approached, she could hear the sound of hoofbeats against the cave floor.

Scratch that. She could _feel_ the hoofbeats. Every one of them shook the cave around her like a mini earthquake. Now she was absolutely certain that the cave was going to collapse around her, and that she was going to be buried alive. But it didn’t--it never did.

As the twin flames drew closer and closer to her, she began to make out the great, shaggy form of the beast that had haunted her since her childhood.

The Buffalo.

No matter how hard Maddie tried, she couldn’t bring herself to stand before the awesome power of this creature. Something about it radiated an absolute strength beyond what any living thing should be capable of, and it overwhelmed her like it always did, bringing her to her knees.

The light from the fire in its eyes grew brighter and brighter with every step it took towards her. By the time he reached her, his snout only inches away from her face, they lit up the entirety of the cave they were in. His eyes were bright enough that she could see nearly every strand of hair in his pristine white coat. His horns, which look lacquered and polished in a way that she knew was impossible for any bison to achieve naturally, gleamed in the firelight of his eyes. She could see every drop of moisture on his snout as he levelled those great, gaping nostrils at her, and snorted in her face like he always did. When his breath hit her, it felt like she had just gotten pummeled by a gale force wind, the kind that blows strong and hard across the plains, uninhibited by any obstacle. But, strangely enough, the strength of his breath wasn’t the thing that took her by surprise; it was the smell.

Rather than the _moist_ , unpleasant smell she'd normally expect from the breath of a large bovid, the Buffalo's breath smelled very different. It smelled like moss, rotting leaves and the rich, loamy earth of a forest floor. It smelled like fresh grass that grew taller than a man out on the prairie and of wildflowers that would turn a field of green into a vast collage of colors.

Maddie waited for him to say it. The only word he had ever spoken to her in that thundering voice of his (a voice which always sounded like her father’s) since she first met him in her dreams as a little girl: _believe._

_Believe in what?_

Except this time he didn’t.

This time, he said, _“Follow me.”_

Without waiting for her to reply, the Buffalo walked around her and started to make his way towards the tunnel that she had just emerged from. Somehow, she was able to gather her wits enough to stand back up and follow him.

She wasn’t sure if he wanted her to stand beside him or follow behind him and he said nothing that might indicate what he preferred. She decided to err on the side of caution and followed behind him.

So many thoughts were racing through Maddie’s head as she trailed after the beast. Not once in her life had this ever happened. Every time she had this dream, the same thing would always happen, without exception. 

But now, she was in uncharted territory and she had no idea what it might mean.

The light from the Buffalo’s eyes illuminated the walls of the tunnel, allowing Maddie to finally see them for the first time, and what she saw astounded her. The walls on either side of her were covered in murals and paintings that resembled pictures she had seen of cave paintings and rock art. When she looked up, she could see even more on the ceiling. There were so many of them and they were so beautifully made, that her first instinct was to stop and look at them, to take them in. But when she slowed down to try and get a better look, the Buffalo just continued walking on through the tunnel, leaving her behind, and she had to scurry to catch up with him.

Still, she managed to get a few fleeting glimpses at some of the paintings as she walked past them. A few of them depicted animals drawn in silhouette: horses, wolves, mammoths, serpents, eagles, bison, deer, and of course, humans. Others consisted of recurring spiral patterns and starbursts. She even thought she saw symbols from the mermaid language a few times.

But there were others that took her by surprise. Instead of simple silhouettes & stick figures, some of the pictures were full blown murals. One featured a giant tree on top of a mountain with what looked like stars woven into the canopy. Another showed what looked like shooting stars falling down to Earth while two human figures looked on. One mural in particular that caught her eye featured four groups clustered together, with all of them seemingly focused on something in their hands. A quick glance and she could see that each group contained a different number of individuals, and she was able to count them before they walked away from it: nine, seven, three….and one large, dark figure who stood alone.

She glanced at a new mural and did a brief double take as she recognized the figures depicted in it.

_Are those…...dinosaurs?_

A thundering voice brought her out of her musings.

 _“The history of the world is written in the earth!”_ the Buffalo said to her without once slowing his gait. _“It is the earth which remembers when all others have forgotten.”_

She didn’t know how to respond. It was as if he had been reading her thoughts. 

That feeling of overwhelming awe (and fear) from being in his presence was still in her and made her feel hesitant to interact too much with the great beast. But she sensed that the point of this deviation from her usual visits to this place was so that she could finally interact with this….being, which had been haunting her dreams since childhood.

She reached down deep inside herself and found the courage to walk up beside his giant, shaggy head and ask him a simple question, “Who are you?”  
There was a brief pause before he gave her an answer.

 _“I am the first child of the Great Mother. Before all others, I was here, and I will be here after all others are gone,”_ he told her.

Okay, a little cryptic, but it was something. She mustered up the courage to ask him another question.

“Where are you taking me?” Maddie asked him.

_“To meet my brothers…….We have something we wish to show you. Something important for you to see so that you might one day understand.”_

“Understand what? Why am I here?” she demanded from the creature.

The Buffalo did not pause or slow his gait, but he did angle his head to the side so that one of those fierce, burning eyes of his was looking directly at her as she followed after him.

_“You are here because the world is changing. A new age is coming and you will have an important role to play in how it will be shaped.”_

She wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but the Buffalo continued speaking before she could say anything.

_“But you cannot shape it on your own……history has proven that._

_“You are part of a matched set. A divine pairing that has occurred only once before at the awakening of your race. They were sundered from each other by Fate, just as you and your partner have been, and the world has known only sorrow since.”_

She could hear something in his voice when he said that last part. A kind of terrible grief that felt all too familiar to her. She had felt it many times in her life. It was the kind of grief that came from watching firsthand as you lost that which you loved, and feeling helpless to stop it.

She had felt it several times in small ways during her career in conservation. Whenever she was forced to confront the truly horrific scale of the damage humanity had done to the planet, and feeling overwhelmed by the task of trying to set what little she could right, but it never seemed to be enough.

She had also felt it many times in big ways; with her mother’s addiction and her father’s death. 

She felt it when she lost Ben, and she feels it now at the thought of possibly losing Ryn.

_“If you are to succeed in bringing about a better world than the one you inherited,”_ the Buffalo said to her. _“You must be reunited with your partner, or else history will repeat itself, and the new age may bring even greater sorrows than the one that came before.”_

“What are you talking about?” she asked him. “What partner?”

But he didn’t respond--he just kept walking forward through the tunnel, away from the chamber where they had always met before. It suddenly occurred to her that, in all the times she came here in her dreams, she never once wondered where this tunnel began; where it came from--only that it led deep into the earth.

It wasn’t long though before she found out where the other side ended. After a few more minutes of walking (the journey backwards in light--towards the surface she guessed--didn't feel nearly as long as the journey downwards did in darkness), they came upon a solid wall of rock blocking their path. The tunnel ended (or rather, began) in a dead end.

She stopped short alongside the Buffalo, unsure of what to do. He turned his great head and looked at her straight on with both of his eyes of fire.

 _”Climb on my back,”_ he said.

Every fiber of her being screamed at her to say no, but she knew that going back down the tunnel to the cavern was not an option. Ryn always told her that, in the ocean, her people always moved forward in life, never backwards. That cavern had haunted her all her life, but she could not stay there forever. Now she needed to go forward; she needed to see what was on the surface.

Maddie reached out, and as gently as she could, grabbed hold of the Buffalo’s shaggy fur that covered his front. Using the fur as a hand hold, she pulled herself up onto his back. Due to his great size, she had trouble pulling herself all the way up, and had to grab onto his horn to give herself some extra leverage. If the beast was displeased by this, he did not show it.

Once she was finally able to sling herself over onto his back, straddling his huge bulk, Maddie positioned herself just behind the fatty hump on his shoulders and grabbed hold of his fur again so as to hold on. She felt herself unconsciously squeezing his sides with her legs, trying desperately to keep herself from sliding off of his back. All the while the Buffalo just stood there--patiently waiting while she got into position.

Once she was comfortable, the Buffalo walked forwards towards the dead end wall in front of them. He showed no hesitation, and he did not slow his gait as he trotted forward. 

Maddie didn’t even have time to protest against this as he walked right into the wall. But instead of crashing into the rock in front of them, they both seemed to melt into it; the rock enfolding around them and swallowing them whole…..

“Maddie. Maddie!”

The sound of Jerry calling her name brought her back to reality with a jolt.

Maddie blinked her eyes and tried to catch her breath. She felt like she’d just been doused with a bucket of ice water. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest.

She heard Jerry’s voice again, full of concern. 

“Maddie. Are you okay?” he asked her.

Maddie was honestly sick of people asking her if she was okay, but after what just happened, she was willing to let it slide. She turned to face Jerry and did her best to try and put on a neutral set to her face. She could see from the look in his eyes that it wasn’t working.

“Yeah…..yeah, I’m okay.”

“I came in to let you know that the pens were all locked up for the night and you were just kind of standing there staring out into space. I tried to get your attention but it was like you couldn’t hear me.”

“Umm, yeah. I was just…..I was kind of lost in thought, you know. Lot of stuff is happening in my life right now,” Maddie said.

Jerry nodded his head understandingly. “Was the meeting bad?”

“It could have been worse if I’m being honest. Most of it’s just personal stuff with me and Ryn.”

“You guys having problems?” he asked her, with genuine concern in his voice.

Maddie shook her head. “No, no, nothing like that, I’m just…..I’m worried about Ryn. She’ll be going back to the water soon and after what happened with the shark….” she trailed off, her mind still lost in another place, trying to return from beneath the earth.

She shook her head to clear it and gave Jerry what she hoped was a reassuring smile so that he wouldn’t try to press her for more information.

“I know I probably sound like a real worrywort,” she said.

“No, not at all. You sound like an awesome wife!” Jerry told her with his usual chipper tone. “If my bae was about to go for a dip with Bruce from _Jaws_ , I’d be more than a little worried too.”

Maddie couldn’t help but role her eyes at the second _Jaws_ reference she’d heard that day, but she had to admit that it felt good to share what she was feeling with Jerry. He was one of the few friends she had who shared her interest in conservation, and his sunny disposition never failed to put her in a good mood.

“Although if you ask me, if anyone can handle a hungry shark, Ryn is most definitely that merperson--so I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”

“Yeah,” she agreed with him. “You’re probably right.”

Jerry being in on the mermaid secret wasn’t exactly something she or Ryn had planned on but, when the rumors of Ryn began to spread through town, Jerry was very quick to put everything together. The guy may be a goofball and a stoner, but he wasn’t an idiot.

And he was probably the one person in town outside of her family that Maddie trusted to be in the know. The man didn’t have a malicious bone in his body and when he approached them about the fact that he knew, he had a whole damn speech prepared about how much he liked Ryn, and how he would never, “never ever, on pain of torture and death” reveal the secret to anyone without Maddie or Ryn’s permission.

He had been so emphatic about it, and about how he would be willing to help her in any kind of emergency situation, that Maddie had been torn between whether to laugh or cry. She wound up splitting the difference and gave Jerry the biggest hug she possibly could.

She needed people she could trust--now more than ever.

After she reassured him one last time that she was alright, Jerry went home for the night while Maddie finished closing up the Center. Her headache was mostly gone now, as if a massive pressure valve had been suddenly released in her brain, but that didn’t make her feel any better. If anything, it worried her even more.

While she drove home to her and Ryn’s apartment, she thought about the vision she experienced. 

She’d never had one of these “dreams'' when she was wide awake--especially not _that_ dream.

When the things she saw came to her in her sleep, she’d figured that she could just write them off as ordinary, if intense and vivid, dreams. Her dad always told her that she had a bright and imaginative mind, and she’d grown up with plenty of things in her life (both good and bad) to keep her mind preoccupied, so of course her nightly rhythms would be eventful. For God’s sake she was married to a mermaid! Her dreams by this point should be miles past going to school in her underwear.

But now it felt like this was something that she couldn’t just write off under the label of “unusual, but not abnormal.” She honestly felt the same way she did on that fateful day when Ben showed her the footage of Ryn attacking him under the water. Like a veil had just been lifted from over her eyes and the world as she once knew it no longer existed. 

Now she felt like she had to rethink everything she thought she knew….and she fucking hated it!

For the first time in years, Maddie felt like she’d achieved something resembling a stable and peaceful life. Was it perfect? Absolutely not! But she finally felt like she was in a place where she felt safe enough to let down her walls a little and not have to worry about taking care of everyone else in her life.

The idea that something was coming that might change her life in a big way and turn everything upside down terrified her. The last time it happened, when she learned that mermaids were real, caused a domino effect that cost her nearly everything and everyone she loved. She didn’t want to think about what she might lose after a second revelation.

That feeling she’d been having in the pit of her stomach for weeks now; the feeling of something coming her way was making itself heard loud and clear right now in a way that she couldn’t ignore. 

No matter how much she wanted to.

*********************************************************************** 

Maddie opened the door to her apartment and immediately made her way into the living area. Ryn was already home from work, sitting on the couch and watching TV, with multiple books surrounding her like a little nest. They were mostly being ignored though because Ryn was completely engrossed in the show she was watching--a documentary about dinosaurs.

 _What are the odds?_ she thought to herself sarcastically, thinking about one of the murals she had seen in her vision. Her worries about the vision melted away though when she saw the enraptured look on Ryn’s face.

During her quest to learn more about humanity and the surface world, Ryn had discovered documentaries on television and they quickly became Ryn’s favorite way of learning new things about the world.

“Hello, lover,” Maddie greeted Ryn with a kiss as she walked over to join her on the couch. She took off her coat and threw it on a nearby chair while Ryn grabbed the books that she had next to her on the couch, and placed them on the coffee table in front of her so as to give Maddie a place to sit. 

Maddie immediately took advantage of the opening and flopped down on the couch, placing her head in Ryn’s lap, and kicking off her shoes.

From where she lay, Maddie could see that Ryn’s attention was firmly fixed on her as she looked down at her, their eyes locking onto each other, brown and blue.

“Hello Maddie,” Ryn said to her. Maddie reached her hand up in search of Ryn’s, who’s own hand quickly found her’s, and the two of them interlaced their fingers together.

With their hands now interlinked, Maddie took Ryn’s hand and placed a kiss on the back of it--a gesture which Ryn reciprocated towards Maddie’s hand--before turning her head slightly towards the TV to see what was on the screen. Ryn was watching _Walking with Dinosaurs_ \--again.

Maddie had gone through a serious dinosaur phase when she was younger and her dad had gotten her a copy of the series on dvd as a birthday present--the dvd which Ryn was currently watching. The science behind the series was seriously dated but the atmosphere and wonder it created was absolutely timeless. So, naturally, when Ryn started to take an interest of her own in prehistoric life, Maddie decided to show her the documentary and she had been immediately blown away by what she had seen. Maddie hoped that one day it would be safe enough for them to visit the Burke Museum in Seattle so that they could go see the dinosaur skeletons there--she could already see the stunned look on Ryn’s face as she saw them and the thought of it already made Maddie melt on the inside.

“How was your day?” she asked Ryn.

“Good,” Ryn told her. “I went for a walk through town after you went to work this morning and then I had lunch with Helen.”

“Hmm,” Maddie hummed in acknowledgement while playing with Ryn’s fingers. “You and Helen have fun together?”

“Mhm. We helped her new neighbor move in next door.”

“New neighbor?” Maddie asked incredulously. “Are you telling me someone is actually moving _to_ Bristol Cove? In this economy!”

Ryn nodded her head in affirmation. “She’s opening her own shop next to Helen’s. She called it a ‘New Age’ shop.”

“Oh, so Helen’s got a hipster for a neighbor,” Maddie said with a chuckle. “I’m sure she’s gonna love that. Does she seem nice?”

“Yes, she was very nice.”

“Was she pretty?” Maddie asked teasingly.

“Yes,” Ryn said bluntly. Maddie couldn’t help but chuckle. After all these years, Ryn still didn’t have much of a filter.

“Prettier than me?” Maddie teased her a little more.

“No,” Ryn stated, with a knowing smirk at Maddie’s game.

“Good answer…...Maybe we should bake her some cookies as a ‘welcome to the neighborhood’ present?”

Ryn hummed in agreement at the idea before turning her attention back to the television. Maddie glanced at the screen and saw that the program had reached the episode which focused on the marine reptiles of the Jurassic period; which was naturally Ryn’s favorite episode.

The two of them sat together in silence for a moment, watching as the Liopleurodon ambushed the Ophthalmosaurus from below. The first time the pair of them had watched the show together, Maddie couldn’t help but ask Ryn if there was anything like that still living in the ocean. Ryn had told her that, while they weren’t _exactly_ like the prehistoric creatures shown in any of the _Walking with…_ series, there were fearsome creatures and predators which dwelled in the deeper parts of the ocean that Ryn had been told stories about by the elders of her tribe. She hadn’t actually seen any of them though due to the fact that there weren’t many of them left; like the mermaids, their numbers were dwindling.

Nonetheless, the knowledge of their existence did little to allay Maddie’s worries about Ryn going back to the water.

 _Jesus, Maddie! Stop worrying so much! Ryn’s lived nearly her entire life in the ocean. You KNOW she can handle herself out there. You getting a couple of bad vibes doesn’t change that_ , she thought to herself.

Maddie felt a gentle squeeze on her hand--the one that was being held by Ryn’s--and she allowed herself to relax a little bit. She knew that she sometimes had a bad habit of spending too much time in her head and overthinking things, and an even worse habit of sometimes dwelling on the worst case scenarios. That was and had been one of the many things she loved about being with Ryn and Ben. Their passionate (and, at times, impulsive) personalities had complimented her’s in many ways and allowed her to let go of her worries for a moment.

Her eyes drifted towards the pile of books on the coffee table that Ryn had been reading and one in particular stood out to Maddie. She reached over to grab it off of the table and brought the cover up to her face for her to see. It was an old copy of “ _Le Morte d’Arthur_ ”.

“Where’d you get this?” Maddie asked Ryn.

“It is Megan’s,” Ryn said.

“Megan?”

“Helen’s new neighbor. She said I could borrow it,” Ryn explained.

“That was nice of her. Did she just offer it to you or….”

“Eliot was there at Helen’s shop today. He was helping us to move Megan’s stuff and he saw the book in a box full of books. He told me that I might like this one, and Megan said I could borrow her copy.”

“The old man does love his stories. I wonder if he and Helen like to get together to ‘trade stories’,” Maddie said cheekily, acknowledging the little courtship that was going on between the two of them.

“Why do you think he was at Helen’s house?” Ryn asked rhetorically, with more than a little cheekiness of her own.

Maddie chuckled at Ryn’s joke while continuing to contemplate the book.

“You know I had a history teacher in high school--Ms. Farley. She loved to talk about the Arthurian legends.”

“‘Loved’,” Ryn inquired.

“She’s not at the school anymore. She started teaching there at around the same time Ben and I started going there, and then she…..she kinda just left a few months before we graduated. Didn’t tell anyone that she was leaving or where she was going; she just up and left.”

“You sound sad about that,” Ryn said.

“She was….she was something of a mentor to me,” Maddie explained. “My mom was in a really bad place back then--probably the worst she ever got--and Ms. Farley was there for me when I needed someone. She took me under her wing.”

“She was like a mother?”

“No,” Maddie said. “More like a big sister; like you and Donna. She was younger than the other teachers, about the same age I am now, when she taught at the school.”

“Was she a sister to all the students?”

“Not as far as I know--just me. Don’t get me wrong, she was very warm and kind to everyone in her classes. She was everyone’s favorite teacher, and she actually managed to make learning about history fun!

“But I think she and I had a pretty close bond that the other students didn’t have with her. Even after I no longer had her as a teacher, I still went to her for advice on a lot of stuff.”

Ryn nodded her head in understanding, but she also had a quizzical look on her face like there was something Maddie said that was troubling her.

“Learning about history isn’t fun?” was all Ryn asked her, genuinely befuddled by the idea. One of the things she loved learning more than anything was human history.

“It depends on who’s teaching it,” Maddie explained, and Ryn seemed to accept that as a reasonable answer.

What Maddie didn’t mention was the fact that another reason why Ms. Farley was so beloved by her students was the fact that she had been stunningly beautiful. Nearly everyone who met her at BC High (from students to staff) had fallen in love with her in some way during her tenure--and Maddie had been no exception.

Maddie’s junior year had been a really confusing time for her--looking back, much of it was a blur that she could barely remember. But there were three things, though, that Maddie could very clearly remember: Elaine Pownall’s accident, her and Xander ending their relationship, and Maddie realizing that she liked girls when she developed a crush on Ms. Farley.

She had never tried to act on her feelings and Ms. Farley never once tried to take advantage of Maddie during the course of their relationship. There had always been an implicit trust between the two of them as teacher and student. It was one of those moments where Maddie just _knew_ something on pure instinct--she knew she was safe with Ms. Farley. Maddie had even felt safe enough to go to her to talk about her discovery of this new aspect of who she was (without letting on, of course, who exactly the source of her realization was), and the history teacher had been nothing but accepting and supportive of her in this realization.

Of course, this just meant that when she left town without so much as an explanation or a goodbye (the same way her mother often would), it had devastated Maddie and left her brokenhearted for weeks.

“Why do you think she left without telling you?” Ryn asked, suddenly.

Ryn had explained how the two of them were connected to each other through the Siren Song, even after Maddie had been to the echo chamber, but that didn’t change the fact that it was still unnerving how Ryn just seemed to _know_ exactly what Maddie was thinking at certain times.

“I don’t know,” Maddie said. “I wish she had told me why though--written me a letter or something.”

“Maybe there was something important that she had to go and do and there wasn’t time for her to say goodbye,” Ryn suggested. Maddie just shook her head in response, brushing off the idea.

“It doesn’t really matter at this point. It was years ago, I’m sure she’s moved on with her life by now with a husband, and a bunch of little gremlins running around some big house in the ‘burbs with a yard and a white picket fence,” Maddie wasn’t even really bothering to keep the sarcasm out of her voice when she said this. Okay, yeah, she was still a little salty about it all these years later. Unlike her mom, Ms. Farley never showed up in town again years later to try and explain what happened and to try and reconcile with her.

Maddie put the book back on the table and went back to watching _Walking with Dinosaurs_. She took her now free hand and brought it to join the other one that was currently holding Ryn’s so that the mermaid’s hand was now clasped firmly in both of Maddie’s and held against her chest. The two of them fell into silence once again as they watched their show and took comfort in each other’s presence.

The whole time they were cuddling together, Maddie was internally debating about whether or not to tell Ryn about the waking dream-vision she had earlier today. Maddie honestly wasn’t sure how she was even supposed to bring up such a thing when she herself didn’t even understand it.

“Did you want to get something for dinner?” Maddie asked Ryn instead. Ryn told her “no” since she had a late lunch with Helen and she wasn’t really hungry. Maddie honestly wasn’t that hungry either so she decided just to keep laying with Ryn on the couch.

The entirety of the documentary was about three hours long, so by the time it was over, it was nearly nine o’ clock. Maddie asked Ryn if she’d like to watch the sequel documentary or something else entirely, but Ryn shook her head “no”. She told Maddie that she was pretty tired after walking around all day and helping Helen’s new neighbor move in.

Maddie had to admit that she was pretty tired as well, and after her own stressful day, she honestly wasn’t in the mood to do much more than crawl into bed and go to sleep. She was afraid, however, that if she went to sleep, she would have another dream; maybe she would pick up right where her vision left off.

Oddly enough, the idea of that both terrified and excited her. She wanted _nothing_ to do with these dreams, or visions, or whatever! But at the same time, a curious part of her--the part of her that was a scientist and an explorer; the part of her that was human--wanted to know what was going to happen next.

What was it that the Buffalo wanted to show her?

Later, when the two of them were getting ready for bed, Maddie kept thinking about how to tell Ryn about the vision. If this truly meant something important, she knew that she needed to share it with her wife. But how?

Maddie eventually decided to just tell Ryn outright.

“Ryn something happened to me today.” “Maddie I need to talk to you.”

They had both spoken at the same time.

“You go first,” Maddie said, sitting down on the bed next to Ryn so the two of them could speak comfortably.

“When I was walking this morning, I was thinking about many things. The shark, the sea lions…..your dream.”

Maddie shifted a little at the mention of that since it just reminded her of what she needed to talk to Ryn about.

“My dream….” Maddie said, trying to downplay it--desperately wanting it to not mean anything.

“Was about something that is important to my people. The deep parts of the ocean….they are a place that we fear, that we never go to for a reason. You dreaming about them, about the….things that are down there, it means something.”

Maddie could sense where this conversation was going, and it was confirming all her previous fears.

“We don’t know that,” Maddie said, still in denial.

“Yes we do,” Ryn gently insisted, placing her hand over Maddie’s again. “When Sarge’s spirit came to warn Helen about Tia’s war, we all knew what it meant.

“And we both know this means something too.”

Maddie closed her eyes and let her head hang down as she realized that she had no choice but to accept the reality of what was about to happen.

“When were you planning on going back?” she asked Ryn.

“In a few days. I want to let the council know what I’m going to do.”

Ryn paused for a moment, her voice dropped down to a whisper. “And I wanted to have a few more days with you.”

Maddie squeezed Ryn’s hand. “I want that too,” she said.

“What did you want to talk to me about?” Ryn asked her. “You said something happened to you.”

 _Just tell her outright_ , Maddie reminded herself.

“I had a vision today at the center--when I was awake.”

Ryn’s expression didn’t change all that much, but Maddie could tell from the subtle shift in her brow that she understood the significance of what she just said.

“What did you see?” Ryn asked.

“The Buffalo--again,” Maddie said. “But it was different this time.”

“Different how?”

Maddie explained to her what happened in the cave--what she saw and what the Buffalo said to her--and Ryn listened attentively to every word.

When Maddie was finished talking, Ryn asked her, “He said you needed to be reunited with your partner--who do you think he was talking about?”

“I don’t know,” Maddie said. “I thought he might have been talking about you, but he also said we’ve been ‘sundered’ from each other.”

“What does ‘sundered’ mean?”

“It means we’ve been split apart.”

Ryn took a moment to consider what she said. “I’m going back to the water. We will be split apart when that happens.”

Maddie shook her head. “I think whoever it is, we’ve already been separated from each other.”

Ryn got a pensive look on her face like she was thinking about what Maddie just said, before giving her a look that Maddie had seen many times in the weeks that had followed the battle with Tia. It was a look that exuded the kind of hopeful yearning of someone who was waiting for something to happen that they were just absolutely certain was going to happen.

“What if…” Ryn started to say.

“Ryn,” Maddie pleaded with her. She knew where this was going. “Don’t….please.”

Even after all these years, Maddie knew that a part of Ryn still believed that Ben was alive out there somewhere, trying to make his way back home to the two of them. On any other day this would make her heart ache for Ryn (and for Ben as well)--in no small part because she _wished_ she could have that same kind of faith, she _wanted_ to believe the same as Ryn, but having an absentee mother for most of her life had taught her to believe otherwise--but after the day she’d had, after dealing with Ted, she knew that this was the absolute _last_ conversation she needed.

Ryn must have sensed her desire to avoid this topic so she let it go, but Maddie could tell that the idea was still in her head.

There wasn’t really much either of them had to say about the situation after that. Neither of them had any idea what exactly they were supposed to do about this and they were both dog-tired, so they went back to getting settled in for bed. Ryn set up the body pillow in Ben’s spot on the far side of the bed while Maddie wrapped her hair up in a scarf, and then the two of them cuddled up together under the covers, Maddie holding Ryn close in her arms, their legs tangled together.

As the pair of them drifted off into sleep, their breathing slowing down and becoming even, Maddie broke the silence,

“If I dream tonight will you be there to save me?”

Ryn’s answer came on the softest of whispers, but she heard it all the same.

“ _Always_ ”

A few heartbeats later, Maddie drifted off to sleep.

***************************************************************************** 

Maddie didn’t dream about the Buffalo again.

She found herself standing on a rocky, barren plain. Whichever direction she looked, there wasn’t a sign of life to be found.

A savage wind unlike any she’d ever experienced, was howling around her. The screaming gusts blew with such strength that it nearly knocked her over. Her hair whipped back and forth with such force that she could barely see or hear anything. What she could see, though, were dark clouds overhead that turned the sky a near pitch black.

She also thought that she could somehow hear the sound of waves crashing off in the distance, which made her wonder if she was near a coast of some kind.

Suddenly, she heard another sound cut through the howling of the wind like a knife. It sounded like the angry, territorial roar of an animal, but it also sounded like something else--something more human.

It sounded strangely familiar to her.

When she turned around to locate the source of the sound, she found herself standing before a mountain of skulls piled high in front of her. From where she was standing, she could tell that many of the skulls were human.

She could also tell that many others weren’t.

But that wasn’t what really caught her attention. What caught her attention was the figure standing atop the mountain.

She couldn’t see it well at first, but to her eyes it looked vaguely like a human being.

The next thing she knew, her eyes zoomed in on the figure in a way that reminded her of a microscope zooming in on a specimen.

She had been right in thinking that the figure looked vaguely human, because that’s exactly how it looked--vaguely human.

It had the basic body-plan of a human being, but the proportions were all wrong. The torso and the arms were heavily muscled, and covered in grey scaly skin that ran all the way up to its shoulders and across its broad, muscular chest. She also noticed that the arms of this creature were slightly longer than normal and ended in big hands that were….webbed! It had webbed, clawed hands that looked exactly like a mermaid’s.

Its legs were different as well--thick, muscular and slightly bowed. If she had to guess, she was certain that this….creature, would be just as comfortable moving around on all fours as it was on two legs.

Its face was harder for her to see though, due to the fact that the creature was fighting for its life.

All around it there were strange shadowy shapes clambering up the mountain of skulls. They looked and moved in a way that made Maddie think _animal_ but the outlines of their bodies were unlike any animals she was familiar with. Even if she did think that she could recognize a few of them, there were so many of them crawling and writhing around each other to get to the top of the mountain, her brain didn’t have time to make the necessary connections.

Once the shadows got to the top where the human-creature was, they immediately tried to attack it. It reminded her of the playground game, _King of the Hill_ \--and the creature at the top was desperately trying to defend its crown.

Even the way it fought could be best described as “vaguely human”. Yeah, it punched and kicked the shadowy creatures in ways that reminded her of the moves she had been taught in her self-defense classes, and it used a few wrestling moves that definitely wouldn’t have been out of place in a WWE match.

But right after it used one of those moves, it would follow up with an attack (or was that a defense?) that was down right animalistic.

It would scratch and rip with its clawed hands, or sink its teeth into the neck of…..whatever it was fighting. A few times, after it had grappled one of its opponents to the ground, it would bring one (or both) of its fists down in a heavy handed slam-punch that reminded her of videos she had seen of apes fighting--gorillas in particular.

The gorilla/ape similarities extended even further when there was a pause in the onslaught of shadow-creatures and the humanoid at the top was able to get a reprieve. It used that reprieve to beat its palms against its chest and roar--the same roar she had heard earlier--in defiance (or maybe that was dominance) at all the other creatures that were crawling up the mountain to try and reach it. A few of them actually seemed to pause for a moment while it did this; as if they actually were being intimidated by this thing.

But the humanoid eventually ran out of air in his lungs and he (she was almost certain it was a male...something) prepared to take on the next wave of enemies as they neared the summit of the mountain.

In the brief seconds before he was overwhelmed once again, Maddie was able to get a look at the creature’s face.

Like the rest of him, his face was a strange mixture of human and animal traits--most of which was hidden beneath a thick beard and a shaggy mane of brown hair.

Wait a minute….was there something….familiar about that face? The human aspects of it at least.

Then something happened that she couldn’t explain.

The creature became...blurry. His shape became blurry and out of focus in a way that reminded her of a 3-D movie when you watch it without the glasses.

But just as quickly as he went out of focus, his shape started to regain clarity until she could see him clearly once again. Only this time, the shape she was seeing was purely human--all of the more animalistic traits had seemingly melted away. The only recognizably non-human trait that he still possessed were the clawed, webbed hands of a mermaid.

Now his face, though still obscured by his beard and hair, was _much_ more familiar to her than it previously had been. It was a face that she had dreamed about many times before--a face that had been haunting her thoughts and memories for two years now.

It was the face of the man she loved and lost. The face of her soulmate.

 _Ben_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter, we meet back up with Ben on the Mysterious Island to see how he's been doing (spoiler alert: he's not exactly having fun. I'm sorry bro.)
> 
> It also has definitely occurred to me that I am writing a huge, multi-chapter fic for the dead fandom of a broken up ship on a cancelled show that wasn't very huge to begin with.....but I'm having a good time nonetheless so I'll keep on going!
> 
> However, if you, dear reader, are also having a good time, please let me know in the comments below, or even just leave a kudos. It really brightens my day whenever I get a notification of something like that.
> 
> Hope y'all are all doing well and staying safe, I'll see you again in the future.


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